Add The Sashing
When working without a pattern, there’s always a little measuring and math involved, but I’ll walk you through the steps, and I promise they’re easy peasy!
Before cutting out the sashing you’ll be adding to your blocks, you need to decide how wide it’ll be. My default is 2” finished, so I will need 2.5” strips.
Next, you need to measure your blocks. If you’re working with the blocks from my HSTs Three Ways series, each block measures 12.5”. So you’ll be cutting sashing that is 12.5” x 2.5”. Since we are working with three blocks, we’ll need 2 strips.
Sew the blocks and sashing together, as seen in the diagram below.
Add The Borders
Before cutting the borders, you’ll need to decide how wide it’ll be same as you did with the sashing. Usually, I cut my borders the same size as my sashing for projects like this. However, you can make it wider or thinner depending on your needs and personal preferences.
First, let’s cut the side borders, two 12.5” x 2.5” strips, the same as the sashing, and sew them on either side of the quilt top.
Next, you’ll need to measure how wide your quilt top is currently. If you’re using the HST blocks and following the same measurements I have, your quilt top should measure 44.5”. Depending on the WOF of your fabric, you’ll need either two or three WOF strips to make the borders.
In my case, my fabric was only 42” wide, so I cut three 2.5” x WOF strips. Sew them into one long strip and then cut two 44.5” strips. Once you have your border strips, sew them to the top and bottom of your quilt top.
And that’s how you turn three extra blocks into a table runner – almost! We have the quilt top, and I’ll be back next month with a quick tutorial on how to quickly baste this quilt top and then quilt it on your Janome!
