Lorna from Sew Fresh Quilts took the Kona Club Challenge this month and made a beautiful table runner. Lorna is a prolific quilter and talented designer. Her blog is a treasure trove of projects, inspiration, tutorials and more! Make sure you follow her on Sew Fresh Quilts. Lorna used the colors we sent out in April 2014 for Kona Club for her project today. We hope you enjoy this tutorial and make one of your own. We are giving away the fat quarters that Lorna used in this tutorial so be sure to leave a comment on this post to win! Flowering Table Runner Hello Kona Quilting Cottons lovers! Are you up for the Kona Challenge? My name is Lorna McMahon, a modern quilter, designer and the author of Sew Fresh Quilts. Today I will be sharing the results of my Kona Challenge project and an easy tutorial for the Flowering Table Runner. 6 Blocks result in a finished runner approximately size 12” x 58” Flowering Table Runner - 12" x 58" I was totally inspired by this April 2014 Kona Club bundle. Such fresh and spring like colours - they remind me of flowers! 6 Flower Blocks can be made using the following materials: Fat Quarter – Kona Cactus Fat Quarter – Kona Buttercup Fat Quarter – Kona Carrot Fat Quarter – Kona Eggshell Fat Quarter – Border fabric - Kona Snow You will also need: 1/2 Yard of Binding fabric Backing and Batting to cover 16" x 62" Read through entire instructions before beginning. Cutting: From Fat Quarter – Off White (Eggshell) cut (12) @ 3” squares (25) @ 1.5” x 3.5” rectangles (48) @ 1.5” squares From Fat Quarter – Green (Cactus) cut (25) @ 3.5” squares From Fat Quarter – Kona Buttercup AND Fat Quarter – Kona Carrot (18) @ 3” squares From Fat Quarter – Kona Snow cut (6) @ 1.5” squares (8) @ 2” wide strips for borders Crosscut (6) of the 2” strips in half to make (14) pieces approximately 10.5” long Making the Leaf Units: Place (2) Off White 1.5” squares on opposing corners of a Green 3.5” square and sew along the diagonal (Figure 1). Trim the ¼” seam (Figure 2). Press the seam open (Figure 3). Sew an Off White 1.5” x 3.5” rectangle onto the side and press the seam open. Make 24. Making the HST units: Please note that the fabric squares should be ‘sandwiched’ with right sides facing together, and line up on all sides as accurately as possible. The diagram does not show this accuracy for demonstrative purposes. Pair up (12) of the 3” yellow squares with (12) of the 3” orange squares. Pair up the (12) 3” off white squares with the (6) remaining 3” yellow squares and the (6) remaining 3” orange squares. Take a 3” yellow square and a 3” orange square and ‘sandwich’ them together with right sides facing together as shown in Figure A. Using a pencil and ruler, draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of the fabric, from the top corner to the bottom corner as shown in blue in Figure B. This is your guide line. Sew a ¼” seam on the right of the blue line from edge to edge as shown in red in Figure C. Chain piece your HST's by continuing these steps shown in Figures A, B and C. At the end of the last seam, turn your chain of sandwiches around and sew back along the opposite side of the guide line on each sandwich square as shown in Figure D. Then bring the chain of squares to your ironing board and clip the threads between the sandwiched squares. Press to set the seams. Cut along the blue guide line as shown in Figure E. Trim each of the resulting triangles to size using your acrylic ruler. Measure from the seam to the corner, and make sure the seam is at a 45° angle to the sides, as shown in Figure F. The seam will line up with the dots on your ruler. Trim the square to 2.5”. Open the triangle and finger press the seam open. Press the seam open with the iron. Flip the unit over and re-press it on the right side. From the right side of the fabric, your square should look like Figure G. Trim the fabric points (dog ears) so that you have a neatly finished 2.5" square, as shown in Figure H. Now repeat these steps to make the remaining units from all the 3” squares. These will now be referred to as HSTs. Making the Blocks: Step 1: Match each Off White HST to an Orange and Yellow HST, as shown, and sew together. Press seams open. Step 2: Sew each HST unit to a Leaf unit, as shown. Press seams open. Step 3: Arrange four of these completed HSTLeaf units around a White 1.5” square, as shown. Step 4: Place the center square onto the first HSTLeaf unit, as shown. Begin stitching approximately midway down the square, backstitch and then continue sewing off the edge, shown in red. Step 5: Press seam away from the square and arrange your next HSTLeaf unit, as shown. Step 6: Flip the HSTLeaf unit with the center square on top of the next HSTLeaf unit, as shown. Sew a complete seam, shown in red. The grey in the diagram indicates this is the wrong side of the fabric. Step 7: Press the seam away from the square. Arrange your next HSTLeaf unit, as shown. Step 8: As you did in Step 6, flip the HSTLeaf unit with the center square on top of the next HSTLeaf unit and, with right sides together, sew a complete seam. Press the seam away from the square. Then arrange your next HSTLeaf unit, as shown. Step 9: Now fold that first HSTLeaf unit up from the partial seam. Step 10: Then flip the final HSTLeaf unit on top of the HST Leaf unit with the center square and, with right sides together, sew a complete seam. Press the seam toward the HST Leaf unit. Step 11: Now to complete the partial seam, flip that first HSTLeaf unit on top of the HSTLeaf unit with the center square and, with right sides together, finish sewing the complete seam, backstitching where the partial seam was left off. Press the seam toward the HSTLeaf unit. Repeat these steps to make all 6 blocks. Assembling the Table Runner: Sew the (6) White 2” x 10.5” Border strips onto the sides of the blocks and press seams open. Arrange the blocks into a row, sew together, and press the seams. Sew the (2) remaining White 2” x 21” Border strips onto the end blocks, press seams and trim to width. Flowering Table Runner by Sew Fresh Quilts - 12" x 58" Prepare your backing. Layer the backing, batting and quilt top. Baste and then quilt as desired. Trim quilt backing and batting even with the quilt top. Cut 4 strips at 2.5” x WOF for binding. Prepare your binding and attach your binding to the finished quilt. Flowering Table Runner - 12" x 58" I do hope you enjoyed this tutorial and will give it a try! Trust me.... You will find that partial seams are really not hard. And now you have a lovely Flowering Table Runner! If you interested in making a flanged binding like the one shown in this photo, the full instructions for making and applying the Flanged Binding can be found here. Keep On Quilting On! Giveaway! You could win 4 fat quarters of the Kona Cotton Solids Lorna used to make her Flowering Table Runner! Just leave a comment on this post for a chance to win. If you are no-reply/Wordpress blogger please leave your email id in the post. We will leave the giveaway open till Thursday, January 29. Winner will be announced Friday, January 30. Good luck everybody and enjoy making your very own Flowering Table Runner! Many thanks to Lorna from Sew Fresh Quilts for this awesome tutorial. Click here for more details on Kona Club. This guest post was written by Lorna McMahon, modern quilter, designer and the author of the Sew Fresh Quilts blog. On her website, you can learn from her creative processes as she shares her love of modern quilting, tips and tutorials. Connect with me in the following ways!