FREE Quilting Patterns, Tutorials, Magazine

Smaller checkerboard stars sparkle as a quilted table runner

Smaller checkerboard stars sparkle as a quilted table runner

by Sarah Vanderburgh

Whether it’s a season for gift giving or not, quilters always seem to have a stash of irresistible fat quarters on hand. The newest line of Banyan Batiks comes out this month, Rock City, and is definitely a line of fabrics you want to use in your creations!

In yesterday’s post I finished making a checkerboard star quilted cushion cover. I created the cushion by making one large pieced checkerboard star block. Today I’ll use the same block, but smaller, to create a quilted table runner. The runner finishes at approximately 12″ wide x 24″ long.

Rock City checkerboard star table runner

Rock City checkerboard star table runner

Fabric Requirements

Pick three fat quarters for the front and add one more to complete the reverse side. I chose batiks that have different size motifs but have fairly low contrast between each other. I’m enchanted with the sterling colorway of the Rock City fabrics – it just seems to sparkle!

Background 80180-91

Fabric A 80184-32

Fabric B 80181-91

Additional backing fabric 80184-91

Rock City batiks used to make quilted table runner.

Rock City batiks used to make quilted table runner.

Cutting Directions

from background fabric

cut two 3 x 18 strips

subcut for a total of twelve 3 squares

cut two 2½″ strips

subcut into twelve 2½″ squares

from Fabrics A and B

cut two 3 x 18 strips

subcut one into five 3 squares
subcut second strip into one 3 square for a total of six 3″ squares

cut the rest of the strip in half to make two 1½″ x 14½″ strips

cut one 1½″ x 18 strip

Make sixteen patches

  • Sew one fabric A and one fabric B strip together along a long edge
  • Press to the darker fabric
  • Subcut across the new strip to make five 1½″ x 2½″ units
  • Repeat with remaining two sets of strips
  • Make a total of 24 subunits

two patch subunits

two patch subunits

  • Sew units into four patches, with fabric A squares diagonal to each other
  • Make a total of 12 four patch units
  • Sew sets of four patches together to make 6 sets of eight patches
  • Sew two sets together to make a total of 3 sixteen patches

Four patches to eight to sixteen patches

Four patches to eight to sixteen patches

Make half square triangles (HSTs)

  • Draw 1 diagonal line on the back of Fabric A 3″ square.
  • Sew Fabric A square to background fabric 3″ square, RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER, by sewing ¼″ away from each side of the drawn line.
  • Cut on the drawn line to create 2 HSTs. Press the seam to the background fabric.
  • Trim each HST to 2½″ square.
  • Repeat with five remaining Fabric A 3″ squares to make a total of 10 Fabric A and background fabric HSTs.

HST units

HST units

Make 10 hsts with the Fabric B 3″ squares and the remaining five background fabric squares.

Now it’s time to lay out the units required for one checkerboard star block as shown in the photo below.

Block layout

Block layout

First sew together the four pairs of HSTs for the star points – all four are sewn with the Fabric A HST on the left. You may want to leave pressing this unit until putting the whole block together so that each seam will nest as required.

Star HST points sewn together in pairs

Star HST points sewn together in pairs

Next sew each row together:

  • Top row: sew background square to HST pair with seam pressed to Fabric A; then sew on. one more background square.
  • Press the row’s seams to the background squares.
  • Middle row: HST pair with seam pressed to Fabric A to each side of the sixteen patch.
  • Press the row’s seams to the sixteen patch.
  • Bottom row: background square to HST pair; then sew on one more background square.
  • Press the row’s seams to the background squares.

Star units sewn into rows

Star units sewn into rows

Now sew the rows together to make star block.
The block should measure 8½″ square unfinished.

Checkerboard star block

Checkerboard star block

Make 2 more checkerboard star blocks and come back for the next post when I’ll add a border to complete the top of the runner. I’ll add the final Rock City batik to the reverse side and quilt the runner too!

This is part 3 of 5 in this series.
Go back to part 2: Rock City batiks rock the back of the quilted cushion!

Go to part 4: Making a reversible table runner using Banyan Batiks Rock City

[shareaholic app=”follow_buttons” id=”23735596″]

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE...

2 comments

Cynthia C January 12, 2019 - 7:34 am

I like the subtle coloring of the batiks. Very pretty!

Reply
Sarah C December 9, 2018 - 8:12 pm

Love the small checkerboard and choice of batik

Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.