Holiday Blooms, a 21” x 21” quilt piece, was designed just for the AQS Christmas Countdown 2020. Good cheer and success are yours with these holiday Poinsettias created with our simple machine reverse appliqué method with appliquéd flower centers.  It was designed as a centerpiece table decor, or small wall-hanging or large pillow.

But perhaps you would rather have a classic long table runner. This blog will walk you through using the same Holiday Blooms pattern to make a classic long table runner (19” x 35”) to accompany your Holiday Blooms quilt piece. Look for our other blogs to make coordinating placemats and a cute 5” ornament, too.

 The Holiday Blooms pattern is FREE from the AQSblog.com, and you will need to download it to make this table runner. There are also convenient kits available on our website. The kits also include a coupon code to get a FREE PDF digital Holiday Blooms pattern from our website. The Table Runner Kits come in two Holiday colorways, Red Poinsettia and Christmas Flowers, that coordinate with our Red and Green/ red colorways of the Holiday Blooms 21” pieces, and the placemats that were presented in another blog.  The Table Runner Kits have top quality Island Batik fabrics and all the Soft Fuse fusible you will need to make the 19” x 35” table runner. They include cutting directions for the fabric. 

Let’s get atarted!

 To make this classic, long table runner you will need:

Christmas Flowers colorway

Top & Binding:

• 3 – 8 ½” X 8 ½” squares white, Center Flower Block, top fabric

• 3 – 8 ½” x 8 ½” squares red, Center Flower Block, background fabric

• 4 – 5 ½” x 5 ½” squares, white, Petal Corner Posts, top fabric

• 4 – 5 ½” x 5 ½” squares, red Petal Corner Posts, background fabric

• 2 – ¾” x 35 ½” yellow side Inner Border strips

• 4 – ¾” x 8 ½” yellow Inner Border strips, Center Flower Blocks

• 5” x 5” square yellow for applique of 7 Flower centers

• 2 – 5 ½” x 8 ½” rectangles green top/Bottom Borders

• 2 – 5 ½” x 25” green Side Borders

• 3 – 2” x WOF strips green, Binding

 Green Poinsettia colorway

Top & Binding:

• 3 – 8 ½” X 8 ½” squares white, Center Flower Block, top fabric

• 3 – 8 ½” x 8 ½” squares green, Center Flower Block, background fabric

• 4 – 5 ½” x 5 ½” squares, green, Petal Corner Posts, top fabric

• 4 – 5 ½” x 5 ½” squares, red Petal Corner Posts, background fabric

• 2 – ¾” x 35 ½” yellow side Inner Border strips

• 4 – ¾” x 8 ½” yellow Inner Border strips, Center Flower Blocks

• 5” x 5” square yellow for applique of 7 Flower centers

• 2 – 5 ½” x 8 ½” rectangles white top/Bottom Borders

• 2 – 5 ½” x 25” white Side Borders

• 3 – 2” x WOF strips yellow, Binding

For both colorways you will need:

Soft Fuse (double-sided, paper-backed, iron-on fusible):

• 4 – 8” x 8” squares Center Flower block;

• 4 – 5” x 5” squares Petal Corner Posts;

• 1 – ½” x 2” strip for applique of flower centers.

Backing: 23” x 39” rectangles white

Batting:   23” x 39” rectangles

Terial Magic spray-on stabilizer or 3 – 8” x 8” and 4 – 5” x 5” squares of add-in stabilizer of your choice

Through out this blog I’ll show pictures of assembling of the Christmas Flowers colorway, followed by pictures of the Green Poinsettia colorway. Hopefully it won’t get confusing

 Making the Reverse Applique Blocks

 Using the 8 ½” x 8 ½” top and background squares for the Center Flower Blocks and the 5 ½” x 5 ½” top and background squares for the Petal Corner Posts, follow the directions for Machine Reverse Applique and Machine Applique beginning on page 2 of the Holiday Blooms pattern. Square up and trim the Center Flower Bocks to 8 ½” x 8 ½”, and the Petal Corner Posts to 5 ½” x 5 ½”.

 Assembly of your Classic long table runner top

 Using a ¼” seam allowance, sew a Center Flower block to an Inner Border strip to a Center Flower Block to an Inner Border strip to a Center Flower block. Iron seams towards Inner Border strips. table runner center measures 8 ½” x 25”.

 Sew a ¾” x 8 ½” Top/ Bottom Inner Border strip to one side of a 5 ½” x 8 ½” Top/ Bottom Border. Iron seams towards Inner Border strip. Make 2. Border measures 5 ¾” x 8 ½”.

 Referring to the pictures below, sew a Top/Bottom Border to the top and bottom of the center of the table runner.  Iron seams towards the Inner Borders. Sew a ¾” x 35 ½” Inner Border strip to each side of table runner center. Table runner center measures 9” x 35 ½”.

 Sew a Petal Corner post to a ¾” x 5 ½” Inner Border strip to a 5 ½” x 25” Border to a ¾” x 5 ½” Inner Border strip to a Petal Corner Post. Stop to iron as needed, ironing seams towards Inner Border strips. Make 2. Side Borders measure 5 ½” x 35 ½”.

Next sew Border to table runner center. Iron seams towards Inner Border. Table runner measures 19 ½’ x 35 ½”.

 Layer table runner with batting and backing. Quilt as desired. When quilting reverse applique, quilt inside the reverse applique spaces to accent them, and keep the quilting in the top fabric at least ¼” away from these shapes or you’ll flatten the piece out. 

 Sew binding strips together end to end with a 45° angle to make a 126” continuous binding strip. Trim each 45° angle seam ¼” from stitching. Iron all seams in the same direction.  Fold in half lengthwise with wrong sides together and iron.  Align raw edges of folded binding with the raw edges of the table runner and sew, mitering the corners.  Fold over to the back of the quilt top and stitch by hand or machine.

 Set your table in holiday style and……enjoy a touch of Christmas elegance!

 See also our other blogs using the FREE Holiday Blooms pattern a Holiday Blooms Placemats & Poinsettia Ornament!