Holiday Sewing

I've known for a while that I would like to make a table runner, or really a set of table runners, for our dining table. Ideally, I'd eventually like to have one for all the seasons &/or holidays, but I started with Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I thought I'd make a reversible runner, so that I can just flip it over when Thanksgiving is done, and I mostly like that but I should have quilted each side separately and then joined them together back to back. I had to choose whether to quilt for the fall leaves, or for the presents; I quilted for the leaves, and it looks okay on the present side, but not great.

I wanted to make something that would feel like the season represented, but also match my Fiestaware dishes. I refuse to have fine china for holidays, and I love the casual mix-and-match of the Fiesta dishes, but I did want something to help them feel "Thanksgiving-y" since we were hosting this year.

I found this amazing fall leaf fabric at IQF when I was there, and coordinating prints, and so bought all I could. I used the leaves in the Thanksgiving side, and the blues & reds on the reverse for the Christmas presents.

For the border on the Christmas side, I had some coordinating "Twelve Days of Christmas" fabric, which tied the colors in beautifully while lending a bit of Christmas to the runner as well.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out; I did fairly intricate (for me) quilting, and it's a little wobbly but I don't mind. It looks great on the table and does coordinate the dishes which is just what  I wanted. Success!