Flipping for the Holidays

Even though I have a definite fondness for small projects, I never much wanted to make table runners. To my mind they seemed like quilted doilies. Then I saw this Jenny Doan runner with squares added to the friendship braid. I had some bright colors in my stash and tried to fashion one after the one in her tutorial. 

    Once the top was pieced, I also decided to try out some machine embroidery in the center. Since I did not stabilize the piece, it puckered terribly. So, the whole thing sat by un-hemmed, un-bound, and thoroughly un-appreciated for months on end.

    This week, though, I was in the friendship braid mode, and decided to try doing a backing of the same piecing pattern with Christmas prints. Using heat-resistant batting, I thought the runner could serve my utilitarian purposes by being both decorative and protective. No doily does that! Kind of a running hot pad, as it were, for holiday meals. 
     Once the Christmas-themed backing was pieced, I sandwiched by laying the top and bottom piecing together, right sides facing, carefully aligning the various points of the squares by poking a pin through both. Next I pinned a same-sized piece of batting to the backing, and joined the edges of all, leaving a six inch opening for turning. Corners trimmed, pieces turned, I ironed the edges and stitched a quarter inch inside all around, catching and closing the six inch opening. I think this is called the "pillowcase" method of a binding-less finish.  

    Last of all I quilted in various places on the top piece with a metallic gold thread as my bobbin thread because some say metallic thread spins off the bobbin with fewer glitches.  Sure enough, the only glitchy stitches I encountered came from my top thread. 
     This project really does not have to take long, nor does it have to have puckered embroidery. Those of you who don't skip the stabilizer step in machine embroidery could likely come up with some nifty centered designs, or opt to fussy cut as I did for the Christmas side. 
     Now if I can just keep up with where I store this once the holidays really are upon us, I may not have to flip out, after all!
    Meanwhile, just for fun:

Can't you just see this as a "mosaic" block?

And this would be the quilt.