Well, there was a colossal video FAIL this weekend when I was sewing up the DBJJ Easter Blessings Table Runner. I was at the coast and I didn’t take either of my usual cameras down with me because I knew I had another camera down there. It’s not my preferred Sony Handycam but an off-brand that hubs got for me as a surprise gift one day on a whim. I quickly discovered that this camera can’t focus on close-up shots so I don’t use it. But I figured there wouldn’t be any close-ups stitching this runner together and I didn’t want to lug around a bunch of camera equipment, so I decided to use that other camera.
Bad idea. It turned on, full battery, lots of memory on the chip, and the little red light came on and it was tick, tick, ticking away on the recording timer telling me how long the video was. Which would have been fine except it didn’t actually record any video! I pulled the clips off the chip into my editing software and I was like “WHAT THE SEAM RIPPER IS GOING ON?” The clips that were there were from back in 2021 and not what I had shot that morning. Ugh. So Keith says, “Are you going to reshoot it?” I said, “I can’t. It’s already sewn together.” So he says, “Are you going to make another one?” I looked at him like he was out of his mind.
The block sewing order below is the next best thing. I’ll mention this in a video and link to another video to show the technique. Basically, you line up with outside stitching line and sew just inside them. Don’t line up the edges of the seam allowances since they are not the same throughout. I’ll link to a video below at the bottom of this post to show very close up how it is done.
Here is the process I followed to sew the blocks together on the DBJJ Blessings Table Runner.
Sewing Order for the DBJJ Blessings Runner
Make sure that all border block swirl patterns are facing the same way
1. Dove Units: Sew short border blocks on both ends of the Dove blocks
2. Cross Unit: Sew the swirl blocks on both sides of the Cross block
A. Sew the Savior blocks on either end of the Cross block with swirls
3. Lily Units: Sew the Lily block unit as follows left to right:
1a. Long outer border block
1b. Lily block (face stamens on both blocks the same way)
1c. He is Risen
2a. He is Risen
2b. Lily block (face stamens on both blocks the same way)
2c. Long outer border block
4. Sew long border blocks to either end of the Border/Lily/He is Risen blocks
5. Sew all blocks together: Lily unit, Dove Unit, Cross Unit, Dove Unit, Lily Unit
6. Trim seam allowances around entire runner to 1/4″. Cut the backing 1″ larger all the way around the runner. Fold up backing 1/2″ to the edge of the runner and then fold it up one more time to just cover the outside stitching line. I used SteamASeam to ‘glue’ the folded edge of the runner to the seam line to bind it. Then I used an outside blanket stitch on my sewing machine to tack down the binding. I didn’t use mitered corners.
Here is a video from another runner that shows exactly how to line up the stitching lines to make them fit together properly.
Live and learn! When Keith isn’t looking, I’m going to trash that other camera. 😉