Free Table Runner for a Thanksgiving Feast – Pattern and Tutorial

Fat Quarters are the basis for these blocks and the colors to me represent an autumn path to Grandmother’s House either for Trick or Treating or Thanksgiving. The half square triangle squares help to frame the path to Grandmother’s House. The beige represents the sun becoming dimmer in the fall, the green is the path, and the brown and dark brown are the colors of fall. This type of pattern lends itself to using nested seams to help keep the lines in all the squares straight.

This is a simple pattern to cut and piece together but take your time putting the pieces together, so you get them in the right order!

, Free Table Runner for a Thanksgiving Feast – Pattern and Tutorial

I have written a complete pattern that is available for free in our Free Resource Library. To grab this pattern for yourself, please sign up for the password below.

The pattern will give you all the materials and cuts you will need for this project.

The items I want to address in this post will be the half square triangle squares and nesting the seams when putting the rows together on the block.

I used 4 fat quarters for this table runner. The colors I chose are autumn colors, but Christmas colors would look great too. (see the end of this post for what it looks like with Christmas colors) Like these fat quarters.

First we will assemble all our cut pieces for the table runner. Below is a picture of one of the blocks put together and the pieces we need to make the next block. Each block is assembled exactly the same.

Step 1 – Half Square Triangle Squares!

Take the larger dark brown and medium brown squares and put one of each color together to get four squares to be assembled.

Mark a diagonal line on the top fabric and sew your seam 1/4″ on either side of the line. Then cut on the diagonal line to get 8 half square triangle squares. The photos below show how to get to the 8 squares. Press your seams open.

Next we will trim our half square triangles to 2 1/2″ square. The best way is to use a square ruler that has a 45 degree line on it.

Place the 45 degree line on the seam of the square and line up the 2 1/2″ mark at the end of the seam and line up the side seams at 2 1/2″ also. Trim the outer part of the square. Turn the square and do the same thing on the other side and you will have a 2 1/2″ half triangle square. Reference the photos below for trimming.

Step 2 – Assemble the Pieces

Now that you have all your pieces, you can lay them out and start putting together the block. Refer to the pattern to lay out your pieces.

I want to address putting the rows together. With this block you will want to press the seams in your rows to one side, but alternate each row on which side you press your seams. Use the diagram below for pressing the seams for your rows.

By pressing your seams like the diagram above, it will allow for the rows to be sewn together by nesting the seams together. Because they are pressed in different direction, you will be able to put the seams right next to each other and if they are nested together, the seam will feel flat.

Step 3 – Add Border, Quilt and Bind

After all 3 blocks are finished and sew together, it will need a border! I wanted to show you how I put together my border strips. I put the pieces perpendicular to each other and sew from the top inside corner to the bottom outside corner. Cut your 1/4″ seam allowance and press open. Put all your strips together like this and you will have a continuous piece of border fabric.

Next we will take the border fabric and line it up on one of the long sides with raw edge and right sides together. Pin it place and you will have extra border fabric extending out the other side. At this point we will cut the border even with the short side of the top. Do this for both long sides and seam towards the border.

Now that we have both long borders ironed out. Add the side borders in exactly the same way as the long borders.

We are ready to sandwich our quilt top, backing and batting. Cut your backing and batting 3″ larger on all edges than your top. I use a Quilt Basting Spray to keep my layers positioned together.

I also baste the layers together with a 1/8″ basting stitch all around the quilt top.

Quilt your top any way that you wish to quilt!! I chose to do a 1/4″ stitch around the path and border. You can see how I quilted it in the following picture.

Once quilted, you can cut the batting and backing off even with the quilt top. Now it is time to bind your quilt in any manner you would like with whatever fabric you like!!

I chose to do a continuous binding of two fabrics from the quilt. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but I like it!!!

Thank you so much for going on this table runner tutorial with me! I hope you enjoy making it and I would love to see the colors that you choose to make it in. Head over to my Facebook page and leave pictures of your table runner!

Watch my Youtube video for the same tips just in video form!