Lori Holt Quilt Paper Projects Part 2: Crazy Cute Pumpkin Table Runner

Welcome back for the second and final installment of this Quilt Paper Project series! If you missed Part 1, where we made two gourd-geous Pumpkin Trivets and the center block of this table runner, be sure to check out that blog post first and head back here when you’re done!

1. Gather Your Supplies

This week, we really get to have fun with the scrappy feel you get with Lori Holt’s Quilt Papers. Have fun and get creative with your 5″ Crazy Blocks!

For this project, you will need:

• One pack of Lori Holt 5″ Crazy Quilt Paper
• Seventeen 10″ squares of fabric (for the crazy blocks)
• One 10″ square of fabric (for sashing on the center block)
• Creative Grids Square Ruler (2.5″ or bigger)
• 2/3 of a yard of Bating
• 2/3 of a yard of Fabric for the Backing
• Clover Point 2 Point Turner
• Aplhabitties
• Basting Spray
• Pins

Lori has a whole tutorial on her YouTube channel about using these papers! This blog will not cover the steps in depth, so be sure to check that out for more guidance.

2. Cut Your Fabric

Lori’s 5″ Crazy Papers are designed to be used with 5″ Charm Squares, so we need to start by cutting our seventeen 10″ Layer Cake squares in half twice to make four 5″ squares. With a nice and sharp blade on your rotary cutter, you can confidently cut 3 to 5 layers at a time!

Cut List:

• (17) 10”x10” squares- sub-cut into (4) 5”x5” squares, for a total of (68) 5”x5” squares
• (2) 1.5”x10” strips
• (2) 10″x WOF strips of backing fabric
• (2) 10″x WOF strips of batting

Once you have your 5″ squares ready, it’s time to get to the fun part! Like we did last week, attach a piece of 5″ Crazy Paper to one piece of fabric, stack it with 2 to 3 more squares, and cut multiple squares at once. Again, be careful that your fabric stack does not shift between cuts—using a rotating cutting mat can really help.

*** When cutting, it’s not important to keep your stacks in any particular order; you just want to make sure to keep the same-shaped pieces together. Using alphabitties to mark pieces 1, 2, and 3 and putting our pieces on a design board really helped keep us organized!

3. Shuffle, Sew, and Trim

For a super scrappy look, you can sew your three pieces together using any three fabrics you like, as long as they are all different! For our project, we made each block with different fabrics in a single colorway. From our stash of Layer Cake squares, we made 66 crazy blocks in red, yellow, brown, and blue.

Just like the Pumpkin Papers, after following the instructions for piecing, your pieced block will have plenty of extra fabric for trimming. We love how different and super scrappy each block can feel when trimmed! Lori’s tutorial video provides great inspiration on how to vary your blocks.

4. Piece Your Blocks

The Crazy Cute Pumpkin Table Runner isn’t too crazy to put together. In fact, you’re just making three blocks! Before diving into piecing the blocks, seam together the two strips of backing fabric, press the seam open, and set it aside.

Blocks 1 and 2 are your runner blocks. Each block is 3 x 11 Crazy Squares, and we found it simplest to piece the three rows first and then join those three long strips together. As you can see below, we ironed the strips with the seams going in opposite directions. When it came to joining the three strips, all the seams nested nicely!

Block 3 is crazy quick because you’re basically already done! The Pumpkin Block you saved from last week should be trimmed down to 7.5″x 7.5″, and we need to make it the same height as the rest of the runner. To do this, simply sew the 1.5″x 10″ strips to the top and bottom of your Pumpkin Block and trim down the excess. Once you’re done, your pieced center Pumpkin Block should measure 9.5″x 7.5″.

Finally, sew the three blocks together and trim the backing and batting to the same size as your pieced top.

5. Sew and Flip

We love it when the easy finish is also the cute finish! To have the Crazy Cute Pumpkin Table Runner match the Pumpkin Trivets, we will be building another “inside out” quilt sandwich. The ingredients for this week’s “inside out” quilt sandwich are:

• Backing Fabric, face up
• Pieced Top, face down
• Basting spray
• Batting

Since the batting isn’t long enough to span the whole runner, place the batting so it meets in the middle of your runner, and secure the seam with pins or safety pins before heading over to the sewing machine.

When stitching around the edges of your runner, leave a 4″- 5″ gap for turning. Where you leave this gap is up to you, but we highly suggest not leaving it at the center block due to the small gap between the batting.

Before flipping, trim the corners for a less bulky finish, and use your Clover Point 2 Point Turner to get the corners super sharp.

6. Press, Top Stitch, and Style

With the corners nice and crisply turned out, take your runner to the ironing board and give it all a good press. Next, fold the open edge in, press, and pin or clip it in place. Starting in the bottom right corner of your runner, top stitch 1/8 inch from the edge around the whole piece, being sure to secure the opening you left for tuning with this line of top stitching.

For the quilting on this piece, we stitched a line 1/4″ away from either side of the center stip’s seams and added a second line 1/4″ away from the border. What kind of quilting will you do on yours? We always love to see how y’all put your creative spin on these projects, and we can’t wait to see your photos start to roll in on social media!

Share Your Projects With Us!

As always, be sure to tag us in your photos so we can see them. We might even share your work on our stories!

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Happy sewing!

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