Accuquilt Go! Autumn Penny Runner

A great big happy welcome to any blog hoppers who are stopping by today!  Come on in, get comfortable and play along :)  Since it’s Autumn, I’m playing with wool and my Accuquilt Go!

I started with wool and homespun fabric pieces and the Accuquilt Go! Fall Medley Die #55014.
Additionally to complete this project you will need a wool fat quarter (approx. 18 x 28”) for the background, a half yard of backing fabric (I used a homespun cotton), and Paper-backed Fusible Web.

If you don’t have an Accuquilt Go! You can still make this Autumn Penny Runner, you’ll just have to cut out all your shapes with scissors ~ look for oak leaf stencils, or use an actual leaf to fashion your own template ~ but you can’t beat the Accuquilt Go for speed and accuracy here :)

 

Because I’m a fusible person, and I’m going for quick with this project, I fused some Heat n Bond Lite to the back of my wool scraps before running them through the cutter.   If you’re not a fusible/machine blanket stitch person, you can cut your wool pieces without fusible, and hand blanket stitch around the edges (I like this look too, but I’m going for fast on this particular project).

Bigger wool pieces can be folded to lay over a shape on the die to yield two pieces that lean in different directions.
Tip: mark your die shapes with a sharpie pen to aid in laying the fabric over the shape that you want to use.  I also like to mark little hash-marks out on the edges of the die so I can align fabric along the top/bottom of a shape easily. 

I used random Fall colors and cut the following shapes:
(7) Oak leaves
(10) Acorns & Caps
(3) Pumpkins

Trim the wool fat quarter background piece to 17 1/2 x 14”, and arrange the pumpkins and oak leaves in the center any way that you like.  Press them with the iron to fuse them in place, and machine blanket stitch all the edges.  Note that I still like to use some pins after pressing to hold the Lite fusible in place while I manipulate the piece through the sewing machine.  I just remove the pin before I stitch around each shape.

With leftover background wool, cut out ten 2 3/4 x 4” rectangles, and round two corners on one end to make the penny runner tabs.  Fuse and blanket stitch the ten acorns and caps to these tabs about 1/2" from the rounded edge.

Again, because I’m a fusible person, I added fusible to the back of the table runner center and the ten penny tabs.  I arranged them on top of my homespun backing fabric with the ten penny tabs layered about ½” underneath the table runner center. And fused all in place.

…this held the penny tabs in place while I blanket stitched down both ends of the table runner center through all layers.

Now with a pair of scissors, trim away the excess backing fabric…

…And blanket stitch all around the outside edge.  I used a regular 50 wt thread that I had on hand in a dark brown for all of the blanket stitching, but it would also look really nice with a thicker thread, and a larger blanket stitch to make it more prominent.

So here it is on my sideboard all ready for Fall, my Autumn Penny Runner ~ and it only took me three hours to make from start to finish!  The overall finished size is 24 ½ x 14”.  I’ll leave this out through Thanksgiving until I decorate our home for Christmas.

And now for a little reward to any of you who have managed to read through this entire post and make it to the bottom…How about a Give Away!  Leave a comment on this post, and at the end of this week’s blog hop I’ll choose one name randomly to receive a wool fat quarter and three cut pumpkin shapes to get you started on your own Autumn Penny Runner :)

     Winner was drawn on Oct 3rd ~ WvHummnbrd won! Congratulations :)

Don’t forget to hop over to SewCalGal’s blog today for more Accuquilt Blog Hop fun, and visit the rest of the participating bloggers all this week! You can see the schedule here for the entire hop.

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn