How to Make a Quilted Cushion and Table Runner

The fabric used lends itself very well to quilting around each and every Sunflower and the use of some fancy, embroidery stitches looks cool too, but if you are going to try reproduce this like-for-like please know it isn’t a quick project though it is worthwhile to be patient as the result is very effective.

HANDMADE QUILTED TABLE RUNNER – Fabric by Seasalt Cornwall

WHAT YOU NEED

150 cm x 46.5 cm rectangle of printed chambray fabric – Colour: Sunflower Garden Indigo (pre washed and pressed)

An additional 350 cm x 7 cm strips approx of the same fabric for binding

A sheet of wadding cut to the same dimensions

backing fabric (cotton) same dimensions again (pre washed and pressed)

Quality threads in complementary colours (this project used various shades of blue in the Coats duet and the Coats cotton range)

Rotary Cutter and ruler

Pins

Scissors

Iron

Sewing machine

WHAT TO DO

1. Make a fabric sandwich – with the printed fabric cut to size on top, the wadding in the middle and then the backing fabric at the bottom. Pin around the edges to secure.

2. Form a triangle at both ends of the rectangle. And cut away those angled pieces using a rotary cutter using one side of a quilting ruler for stability and accuracy.

3. Machine stitch (around half an inch seam) all around the whole panel through the three layers. It is best to use a walking foot on your machine for this. On completion cut away the access along the seam close to the stitching.

Binding strips

4. Make your binding strips now by turning in the rough edges of your strips so they just about meet on one side leaving you with a neat band topside that will be approx 3 cm wide, press the edges. Now carefully pin one side of the binding strip(s) along the bottom edge of your panel. Straight stitch along the whole thing attaching one side of the binding to the bottom side of the panel. When that’s done, pull over and hand place the unattached side of the binding to the top side of the panel, repinning as you go. Machine stitch all the way round again. Remember you will have angles to deal with. This is fiddly and care is needed to self bind the edges effectively.

5. Now for the quilting, obviously you don’t have to follow the circular sunflowers as we’ve done here, you can quilt freely or geometrically as you wish and it is worth it if you do. Trim away all loose threads.

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This 'How to Do' feature and the one above for the table runner were originally posted on my WordPress blogging outlet which I am currently phasing out, but I have decided to repeat publish here at Not Compulsory so the details are not lost.  

Here's how to make the quilted scatter cushion (pictured above), once again I used the printed chambray fabric called Sunflower Indigo Garden by clothing retailer Seasalt Cornwall.

Two things to note is at the time of reposting (June 2019) is, firstly, the design 'Sunflower Indigo Garden' is no longer available to buy at Seasalt Cornwall.  Secondly, you will see that step-by-step pictures below also illustrates the making of a second scatter cushion with a floral pattern in bold reds and blues. The fabric used for the second cushion was also from Seasalt (this cushion was not quilted). Again this design is one from last season and so is no longer available. Nevertheless, I'm sure you'd have fun trying to source similar fabric designs as these from elsewhere!

WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE A QUILTED CUSHION

cushion insert 18 inch square

Piece One – 1 X 19 inch square, of printed chambray fabric – Colour: Sunflower Garden Indigo (pre washed and pressed) 

Piece Two – 1 x 12″ x 19″ rectangle of the same fabric approx

Piece Three – 1 x 11″ x 19″ rectangle of the same fabric approx

1 x 18 inch square of wadding

1 x 19 inch square backing fabric (cotton) pre washed and pressed

Quality threads in complementary colours (this project used various shades of blue in the Coats duet and the Coats cotton range)

Rotary Cutter and ruler

Pins

Scissors

Iron

Sewing machine

Figure 1

WHAT TO DO
1. Take Piece One only and make a fabric sandwich with it. Place this, the printed fabric on top right side up, the wadding square in the middle and then the backing fabric at the bottom. Trim with a rotary cutter. Pin around the edges to secure. Now quilt it. As with the table runner on the previous post, we followed the natural rounds and swirls of the design and used different machine embroidery stitches to arrive at the shown above in Figure 1. Tie up and cut away loose threads.

2. Take Piece Three and make a small turn along one of the longer ends, then fold over again – press down with a hot iron. Repeat the process with Piece Two. Action two rows of machine stitching to make neat seams on of these two pieces. You can see the stitched down seam we made in Figure 2.

3. Lay out flat and right side up, the Piece One as Figure 1. Carefully place on top, wrong side up from the top down Piece Three, aligning the edges. As Figure 2 demonstrates.

Figure 2

Figure 3

4. Next, Take Piece Two, wrong side up, and lay it from the bottom upwards so it covers the whole of Piece One completely and at least a 3 inch section of Piece Three. Important that there is at least a 3 inch overlap of the two back pieces. Check all the edges are aligned,  It doesn’t matter that the wadding section and backing fabric do not quite meet the measured edges of the printed fabric components of this project. However, double check that the band of the last rectangular piece is a little higher than centre but not too high when you have everything positioned. Trim a rectangular piece(s) along its rougher cut outer edge(s) to fit, if your calculations happen to be a little ‘out’. Machine stitch a half inch seam all the way round. Machine stitch again, using a zig zag stitch within the hemline, all the way round, to strengthen.

5. Turn the cushion cover in and through the gap at the back and insert the cushion pad. Job Done!