When I make a quilt I usually have left over scraps that are different sizes.  In this case I sewed all the strips together and since they were left over from a fat quarter the size was 16” by 20”.  I cut the strip set in half widthwise so I had 2 blocks 10” by 16”. 

If I sewed the 2 blocks together that would be 10” by 32” which seemed too short for a table runner, so I added a strip that I had left over from the backing to the middle between the 2 blocks.

I now had a table runner 10” by 30” which seemed a little too short.

So I sewed a strip to each end of the table runner. So now I had a table runner 10” by 36” which seemed to be a good length.

I layered it on batting and pieced the backing from left over fabric pieces.  I just keep adding strips until I had a piece big enough for the backing.

I then spray basted the 3 layers and quilted in the ditch with gold rayon thread.  I could have used the quilt as you so method except that I don’t know what I am going to end up with table runner or placemats or a tote bags so that method doesn’t work for me.

I bound the table runner with black fabric.  Below is the finished table runner with lovely black and gold fabrics left over from my Spiral Log Cabin quilt.

Below is my Sprial Log Cabin quilt that I used the left over strips from.

I had some left over squares from a project which were different sizes.  I decided to make 3 blocks with 3 different square sizes.  I added some sashing between the blocks and a small border. 

For quilting the block with the smallest squares, I stitched between the squares horizontally.  I then stitched on the diagonal through the squares. The thread color I used for the entire quilt was medium purple.  It blended well with all of the fabrics.

This is the back of the quilt.

For quilting the block with the medium squares, I stitched between the squares horizontally.  I then stitched on the diagonal through the squares.

For quilting the block with the largest squares, I stitched in the ditch between each of the squares.  Then I stitched on the diagonal twice.  Then I free motion stitched scribbles in the white square triangles. I learned this technique in this Craftsy class Design It Quilt It by Cindy Needham

This is the back of the block with the scribbles.

Here is the table runner on my table. 

How do you quilt blocks with squares?

I had these strips left over from making a Spiral Log Cabin quilt.

I sewed the strips together in to blocks and trimmed the blocks so that they were square.

To make the quilt bigger I added sashing borders with corner squares.  I really like using corner squares in sashing since it makes it easy to line the rows up.

I added a inner border and an outer border to complete the quilt. 

For the quilting, I stitched in the ditch on each side of the sashing.  I stitched in the ditch on each side of the inner border.

For the blocks I used a plastic quilting template.  I used my blue quilt marking pen that is supposed to fade to mark the quilting lines.  I do have lots of quilt marking pens and I never know which one fade and which ones need to be ironed.

However the next day, the blue lines still showed so I spray the lines with water and most of them faded.  The next day I had to spray some of the spots again.  There is some blue in one of the fabrics so it was a little hard to tell if all the spots faded.  The lesson learned is to spray the lines with water after I have finished the quilting.

It looks nice on my table.  It would probably look better on a smaller table.

Wondering what to do with left over strips from a quilt project.  Here is an idea.

After making a quilt that was made with fat quarters I had 15 left over flannel strips that varied in width and were about 21" long.  Because the strips were flannel, I wasn't quite sure what to do with them.  I thought that they might make a table runner however there were not enough of the them. There fore I needed to add some filler strips in between.  

I pick up one of the strips that sort of looked like it might be an average size.  It measure 2 1/4". So finished that would be 1 3/4" times 15 strips would be 26.25", not long enough for a table runner. I thought that if I added a 1" finished strip in between which would add 14" then the table runner would be about 40".

So I cut 7 strips 1 1/2" width from a white fabric, cut the strips in half so they were about the same length as the flannel strips.  I sewed the white strips between each of the flannel strips. 

For the quilting, I stitched in the ditch on each side of the white filler strip.  For some of the wider flannel strips, I stitch down the center of the strip.

Since the flannel strips varied in width, the actually size of the table runner was 48".  By the time I trimmed the strips to the same length, the table runner measured 17" width. 

I discovered an easier way on how to measure the width of the finished table runner when using strips of different widths.  I will share that with you in a future blog.

I took a Craftsy class Strip Your Stash by Nancy Smith and it gave me inspiration for my table runner.
Do you have ideas on what to do with left over strips?