In between larger projects I love working on quick and easy ones where I can enjoy the fruit of my labor sooner rather than later! Plus, February is approaching, making me think about decorating my home for Valentine’s Day.
So, last week I decided I wanted to make a table runner based on the Stand By Me quilt design that I love! But the blocks seemed too big for the size of table runner I was contemplating. Without the inner borders, the hearts block finishes at 18″ by 12″. I knew I wanted the table runner to be no wider than 15″, so that left little room for borders. So, I went back to the design board and re-worked the math to make a smaller scale Stand By Me block. And that’s how Stand By Me the table runner version came about. And here it is (almost) finished!
The table runner finishes at 44″ by 14″. Each heart block measures 12″ by 8″, and you can easily add more heart blocks if you have a longer table.
In addition to rescaling the hearts, I also introduced a piano key border to the design, which I think adds quite a bit of visual interest to the quilt. You can instead use a solid border, and that looks very pretty as well. See the example I shared in my shop.
I decided to do a simple straight line quilting with a little twist. I wanted the hearts to pop, so I stitched in the ditch around the hearts and then marked lines a quarter inch away from the design. I quilted straight lines until I hit the marked line and then changed directions.
I really like the final result. Let me know what you think and how you’d quilt your Stand By Me table runner!
To purchase the pattern, please visit my shop right here! And when you’re done with your quilt, please share it on Instagram using #papatyadesigns and #standbymequilt!