A Mini Brick Road Runner

Every so often, a pattern comes along that immediately gets put into the “tried and true” column. These are the patterns that get used over and over and over again. The Candy Coated quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts is one; the Nancy Raglan by 5 Out of 4 Patterns is another. Shari McConnell of A Quilting Life often talks about how much she loves the Mini Brick Road table runner pattern from Atkinson Designs, so I bought a copy of the pattern the last time I was at the quilt store north of town.

This is not a complicated pattern, but it is clever. The instructions have you take a selection of squares and divide them into two piles. One pile gets cut one way and the other pile gets cut a different way. The fabrics in each pile are sewn together in random combinations to make new squares which are then laid out to form the runner.

I was curious to see how long one of these would take to make. I grabbed a selection of Christmas remnants, did the cutting and the sewing, and about two hours later, I had this:

Of course, I still have to quilt and bind it, but in terms of instant quilting gratification, this pattern is right up there near the top of the list.

A couple of notes:

  • I made the size indicated in the pattern, but this is infinitely customizable by changing the number of squares.

  • I might add a border, but I haven’t decided yet.

  • No guidance is given in the pattern on fabric selection beyond suggesting a fat eighth/fat quarter bundle. Shari McConnell usually uses fabric from the same line in her versions, and they all seem to be of medium value. I would say that if you choose fabrics with higher contrast—as I did—make sure that some of them are solids or read as solids. I made the first pile of blocks and then subbed a few pieces of dark green Kona into the second pile to quiet things down a bit. The units all bump up against each other, so using too many prints will result in visual chaos. I’d say that half prints and half solids would be a good combination.

I’d like to try this with fall/harvest fabrics next.

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One day a few weeks ago, I found the husband cleaning out his trucks with a battery-operated Milwaukee vacuum cleaner. I commented to him that I thought that one of those would be a great thing to have in the house. (Yes, I could borrow his, but it lives on his truck, so if he’s not here, neither is the vacuum.) I have a 12-gallon Shop-Vac here for vacuuming the wood floors, but it’s big and unwieldy and I don’t like to cart it up and down the stairs for small jobs. The Dyson that I keep upstairs works great on the carpeting, but it has a 3’ long inflexible wand that makes it difficult to use for jobs like cleaning the sergers. Also, I am limited by where I can take those machines because they require electricity.

When I came home from Seattle, a birthday present was waiting for me on the kitchen table:

I was delighted! ! I’ve been a bit baffled by the reaction I’ve gotten from people who know about it though—a reaction which can best be summed up as, “My husband knows better than to buy me a vacuum cleaner for my birthday!”

To which I say, “Great! I hope your husband knows you as well as mine knows me and gets you something that makes you happy, just like my husband did.

I have a pretty severe metal allergy and can’t wear jewelry. I am not interested in lingerie. I love presents that make my life easier and more efficient. Now I can clean my sergers and vacuum up loose chicken feed from the back of the car. And I will never understand censuring someone for not getting the “proper” kind of gift if the gift is something the recipient appreciates.