Broken Dishes Runner

There is a fun new table runner in my house. It's more of a "placemat for the TV" really. Hubby wanted something brighter than our sad little crocheted runner to sit the TV on in the living room. Something with COLOR! I dove into my fabric stash to find some prints and colors that would go well in our living room. The broken dishes runner was born.

The piecing is the classing "broken dishes" pattern. I love the straight lines of it.

I wanted to keep the quilting simple, so just a few diagonal lines through the middle of the "dishes" was what was needed, as well as a few verticle lines. I quilted it with light tan thread, which I was hesitant about at first with all of the white, but I think it gives it just a little bit of uniqueness.

That one little block of Joel Dewberry fabric makes my heart smile. I love that orange and white print. I really need to buy some yardage of that.

To make this runner, I cut 20 4" squares of white cotton, and 20 4" squares of colored/patterned cotton. I made half square triangles and sewed a white and colored triangle together.

I arranged the blocks in the "broken dishes" pattern and sewed them together. The length of the runner was 4 blocks X 10 blocks. Or approximately 14" X 36".

Add a backing, quilt, and bind!

I admired the runner and took pictures of it on a buffet in our kitchen, so there's a sweet little person playing by the front door.

Sometimes when I look at it, I see bright colorful pinwheels too.

I'm enjoying all of these small quilting projects. They take so little time to make, use of a lot of small pieces of fabric, and add a touch of whimsy to a room. Although I KNOW that we don't need any more blankets in our house, I have two more quilts in mind that I really want to make. Maybe a good lap size quilt is in order, just to add some punch to the room!