Christmas/Spring table runner

Progress this week! Hurrah! The table runner for my parents is (so nearly) complete, despite running out of thread on Tuesday whilst doing the quilting! And then discovering I had no binding! I had to have it done by today as they arrive from England tomorrow and I knew I wouldn't get anytime once they arrived to finish it.

It all started when I saw this table runner by Flutter.Kat. I wanted to make my parents a table runner that would do for the Winter season, not just Christmas, and one they could turn over and use at other times too. 

So, I made some paper pieced trees using fairly non-Christmas fabrics since I didn't want it to be over the top on the Christmas theme.

I then made a few wonky stars:

I had some Lynette Anderson snowflake fabrics that I thought would make a good border and, in my mind they did! So, here it is all put together:

I was really pleased with this side of the table runner. But struggled more with the idea for the back! I have always like pinwheels, so after browsing pinterest and googling images I decided pinwheels it was. I chose fabrics from my stash that I knew my mum would like. They were all batiks! 
So I constructed what I thought was enough pinwheels to make it close to the same size as the one above. I then discovered my calculations were a little off so had to make a few more. But eventually this is how it turned out:

Finally, the quilting and binding. I quilted most of it with a meandering pattern since I had two different designs to accommodate. I did however, add a few stars into the pattern on the white areas above the trees, just to break it up a little bit. Not that they stand out too much, now I look at it from a distance! Ah well.

I was in the middle of quilting it when the reel of thread ran out! I was not impressed as it was the one day hubby took the car to work so there was no way I could get across town to buy more thread. I was so close and yet stuck. Parents arriving in less than two days and it wasn't compete! 

It all worked out in the end. I purchased more thread and completed the quilting with ease. I did have to take another trip to my LQS to find a binding as I just did not have one that would do both side! I have managed to get the binding sewn on, now I just need to finish the binding by hand. I like this bit as it's the last step before it's done, a nice ending. 

So here we go the pinwheel side, nearly done! 

I also got round to felting my knitted slippers! Our washing machine did a fine job of agitating! Now waiting for them to dry to finish them off.

Next on the list to complete (before starting anything new!):

• Christmas Quilt - FMQ
• Bright 9 patch quilt - hand quilting
• Car strip quilt - FMQ

I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced and The Needle and Thread Network.