Orange Peel Table Runner

My quilt guild had a challenge. The challenge was to make a red, white, and blue table runner and there were two weeks left for me to make it. I wanted to participate, but I really didn't want to have to buy more fabric. I wanted needed to use what I had in my stash. I looked through my patriotic bin and was a little surprised.  I favor cream or beige tones to go along with the red and blue, but I didn't realize the only real white fabric I had was this flag panel that I had in the bin for what seems like forever. It looked like a win win to me, as it was going to be taken out my my stash and I could start on it right way since I was in a time crunch.  Ok, what was I going to do with it?  I had just taken a class at guild with Caron Carlson in which we learned how to draft and hand sew Orange Peel blocks.With that in mind I ended up drafting a template in which the blue star area would be the center of the blocks. This is what the fabric looked like starting out.

And this is what I ended up with! Yes, it is for a small table, but it is still a table runner. (Don't tell anyone but it might end up on my wall instead of the table some day!)

In the class we learned how to draft a block using a 7 inch circle, and you can see how far along I got with the class sample as it is in the 30's fabric in the top right corner. I pieced the table runner using a 4 1/2" circle.

 

This was the first time that I attached a curved binding, and it wasn't as hard as it looks. I like the way it turned out, and you may be seeing more curved or scalloped edges in the future. You never know! I am left with a quite a bit of  the red and white striped sections in the fabric.  Now what do I do with it??? Cutting it up for a string quilt sounds good to me right now.  I don't want to put it back in the patriotic fabric bin! :)