Table Runner with Handwoven Fabric

I was contacted by a student at Earlham College in Indiana about making a table runner using the hand-woven fabrics she and her classmates made this semester. Each had to weave 7 yards then cut them in to 19 pieces so everyone could have one. She sent me 12 to make into a table runner and also she also sent this fun photo of the students with their fabric before it was cut.

Not having sewn with hand-woven fabric, I was concerned about it stretching when it was sewn and I also decided to use a half inch seam allowance instead of the usual quarter inch.

Since I wanted the hand-woven pieces to be 4" x 6" when finished, I cut my test pieces at 5" x 7" but they slid a bit so when I cut the actual pieces I cut them at 5" x 8" so I’d be able to cut them down to 5" x 7" if something shifted. And when I cut them, I made sure to have the 8" along one of the selvage sides since it was less likely to unravel.

I arranged the hand-woven fabrics into color families then sewed together each pair, using a half inch seam allowance. Then I hand pressed the seams apart and top stitched 1.4" from the edge to hold the seams down.

The black sashing between the hand-woven fabric was 1" finished so I cut them at 2" to allow for the larger seam allowance. I pieced each pair of hand-woven fabric with a 2" black sashing strip then pieced the pieces together.

The borders were only half an inch wide so I cut them at 1.5" and sewed them on.

I layered the quilt top with the batting and backing fabric (the same black as the sashing and borders) then basted it. I used a black thread for quilting and quilted 1/4" from the seams, being careful to go in the same direction every time. I started in the center and quilted an “L” shape on the hand-woven fabric then started back at the beginning and quilted a reverse “L” shape. There was some stretching of the fabric but since it was the same way every time, it was easy to control.

I also quilted 1/4" from the seams in the black sashing and the black borders. Since it’s a table runner and won’t have a lot of stress on the binding like a bed quilt will, I trimmed the backing fabric 1" larger than the quilt top and batting and folded the backing fabric in 1/4" and then to the front where I machine stitched it down.