A cheerful little runner

Right now our dining room table and kitchen island are sporting festive Halloween runners, I blogged about them here and here last year. So, while we are currently all decked out for the autumn holidays, I decided to sew up a bright, cheerful runner for our kitchen island. I figure we will need something pretty to look at as the dreary winter sets in. 😉
I started with a Dream On charm pack, and sewed the charms into rows. To offset the rows, I cut 2 charms in half and sewed the halves to alternating ends of the long rows of charms. I quilted the runner in a loop pattern that I’ve been seeing a lot lately. I changed my loops slightly by alternating their size, and I opted for light quilting, with just 1 loop in each charm. It was really easy to create these loops, and I can’t wait to try this on a bigger quilt! To finish off the runner, I used kona in bahama blue for binding, with a tiny piece of kona in bone when I ran out of blue. 😉

If you look closely at this pic, you can see the loop quilting:

 It really brightens up the kitchen!

 For the backing I used a piece from a vintage sheet:

This was a fun, quick project. I have a few more charm packs that would coordinate well with the colors we already have in the kitchen, so next time I need a fast finish I may make a few more of these! (Besides, I will need a few to rotate through between laundry days!)