Canada Day Table Runner

I saw this paper piecing pattern, well I looking at Pinterest for some ideas. It was a Canada Goose holding a knife. I thought it was such a cute pattern to finding attempt the technique called Paper Piecing.

So I made the purchase, and downloaded the pattern. Headed to the fabric Store and picked out the fabrics needed.

After all that, it was time to answer the question. "How does one do this technique called paper piecing"

A smarter person, might of figured that out first, and maybe started with a simple beginner pattern.

So enjoy the adventure of me, figuring out this out and building a whole table runner.

Supplies

Pattern - Murder Goose - (this is not a sponsored link, I just used and loved the pattern)

Fabric

Sewing machine, thread, etc

Paper Piecing Step 1

Alright, I have the pattern, and its printed out. I went to the fabric store, got the fabric needed, with some extra background material. Lets sit down at the sewing machine and...... Stare at these papers and scratch my head.

Ok maybe a quick google search...

or find a "How to paper Piece" on Pinterest....

Alright, maybe video on Youtube...

Its time to call my mom. a quick 5 minute conversation, and its go time

So How do you Paper Piecing

1. Pin Fabric, wrong side on the back side of the paper. So the fabric overflows the spot labeled 1.

2. Pin Fabric, right side to fabric, so that when you sew and press open, that fabric will cover the spot label 2.

3. Sew along the line between spot 1 & 2, (and if that line goes into the seam allowance that too)

4. Remove pins, press fabric open, repeat for spot 3, then 4, etc, etc

5. Once all the pattern pieces are sewn, follow instruction on Assembly

Important notes

• Seam Allowances are not a measured thing. You want the fabric to go over all the line of the spot its for. You can trim back fabric, and neaten the "seam allowances" if needed

• Keep your scraps, there is also a tiny chunk of fabric that you can use.

• Tiny stitch length. This will help when you need to rip paper out

• Don't rip the paper out until you no longer need to work on that spot.

• You cans save all the paper ripping till the very end, just be prepared for the mess

• No matter when you rip the paper out, it will be messy. Sit somewhere, easy to vacuum

• Paper Piecing is kinda addicting

  
  

Where does the time go.

So after the quick call to my mom, I grab all the "I do this" and got to work.

There was a few hiccups, and some reverse sewing. However after a few hours (yeah these are not a quick) I had one goose finished.

Taking break to eat, and grab a night's sleep.

The next day, I started the second goose. Before you ask, the second goose didn't happen any faster.

My original idea, was going to be make 4 geese, maybe 5 geese, and make a table runner. Just Murder Geese Flock on my table. However I switched out my idea, after a late night scroll on Etsy, looking at paper piecing patterns.

Mountie Up

So that scroll thru Etsy, looking at patterns. I found a RCMP Stetson Hat, that happened to be a fundraiser as well - (Found the Stetson here) - Not a sponsored link, I just really enjoyed the pattern.

I decided to add 2 hats to the center of table runner, with geese on the ends.

After purchasing the pattern, it was time to go back the fabric store. At least, I got to show the employees my geese paper piecing.

Time to clean up

So doing 4 paper piecing blocks, with all that paper.

My sewing room, floor looked like it threw a party that I was invited to, and had to clean up from.

Between all the paper getting ripped out, in confetti sized pieces. To thread tails being trimmed form every start and end of each, and every line on every single pattern piece.

It was time to grab the vacuum, and wipes, to clean up my mess.

Oh and yes, those paper confetti pieces didn't stay in the sewing room. No I was finding them all over the house. So there was even more cleaning that needed to be done

Making a Table Runner

So after making all those pieces and cleaning up. Its finally time to assemble a table runner.

Since I am making this table runner from the blocks made, I had to make a pattern that will work with table and blocks.This basically involved measuring the table, and how far off the table I wanted the geese blocks to be.

With measurements from table and block in hand. I drew the the table runner shape I wanted. Starting with the geese at the end, I figured out how much space was left between the top points of each goose block. With that distance, I would draw the Stetson Hats block in place, with a space in between.

Now it was calculating the back ground fabric pieces need to fill the rest of the table runner.

Starting with the geese blocks again, I added some fabric to the top corners to square off the top.

Next was adding a strip of fabric between the Stetson hat blocks. After that is was adding strips of fabric to sides of the Stetson block piece and finally adding some more fabric to merge the geese end to the Stetsons.

Finishing

Finally the end is near. Time to add a backing and bindings to the table runner.

With a table runner, adding is optional. Sometimes, if you are doing lots of quilting and want that pop of texture, you will add a table runner. Sometimes you add batting to add weight to the runner.

However in this case, I wasn't going to do alot of quilting and I found this piece of Batman Flannel from previous project, so that would add a little weight to the Runner

Yes, I made my husband Batman Coaster this year for his birthday month, and he also got a bonus table runner too. See the coaster Blog here . (I also have a Batman Bunting banner from last year here)

I opted to not bind the table runner, instead I put the back and front, right sides together and added a Piping trim from my stash, between the 2 layers. Usually I would bind this kind of project, as its super easy with my special binding attachment.

However with the bath sides being very different, I could not figure out a fabric that looked great on both sides.

Rhinestones

Just when I could lay the table runner on my table and say "its done." Been happy and moved onto other projects. I decided, lets add some rhinestones to the knife and make the murder geese look a bit more unhinged.

So that exactly what I did, Using E6000 Fabric Flex glue, and Crystal AB rhinestones and got to gluing.

And With all that, the Table Runner of my Canada Day Dreams was completed.

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