Tumbled Love - the blue and peach one

This pattern was one of my favourites to write, and since it is about two years old now, I thought it was time I made a new version of it for our table.

I had been sorting my scraps and cutting them into squares of various useful sizes, which meant I had the perfect excuse to dip into that stash and make this blue and pink hearts runner.

The background on this one is scrappy as well. In my first version I used yardage for the background, a lovely print that said "love" in cursive all over it, but with my new resolution of using my stash and scraps wherever possible this year, I went through both of those to find a few different white-on-white prints that worked a treat for this.

Using the scraps was fun. I had been organizing all my scraps for a while now. I think I started last summer and did a bit here and there in spurts and starts. I'm not quite done yet but will be adding a blog post about that process at some point, too. In short, though, I took the scraps I had been keeping in bins (sorted by colour at least) and ironed them all, then cut them to usable sizes, such as 2.5" squares. So to make this runner all I had to do was go through the box of squares and pick out enough. It turned into a bit of a trip down memory lane, too, because having the scraps tucked away in boxes meant I often didn't use them, so some of the squares are from projects that are quite a few years old.

I love the size of this runner. At 18" by 48" it's on the bigger size for a runner, but I prefer to keep them on the table during the day, and take them off for when we eat anyways, so the larger size doesn't matter for me. And I actually made a cutting mistake in my first version which meant I ended up with 1.5" finished squares, rather than 2" ones, so that runner is actually quite small for our large table. It's nice to have a properly sized version now.

This time I didn't want to bind the runner, but rather turn it inside out (like a pillowcase) to have that edge-to-edge look. Because I like the quilting to show through to the back, I opted to turn it first and quilt it second, which meant I couldn't actually baste it. To avoid any chance of puckers when quilting it, I decided on an all-over stipple, which also had the added bonus of being a really quick finish. There's a short (sped-up) video of me quilting this in my Instagram feed if you're feeling curious.
And yes, those are kittens on the backing fabric.

Of course, I had to pull it out for our Sunday afternoon and do a little photo shoot before we cut into the cake. And I wouldn't want to keep the recipe from you, either. This one is the quintessential comfort food of English children's books, a seed cake. If you want to try it out for yourself, here is the recipe I use.

The pattern is available in my shop, and for the month of February 2020, I will be donating all profits from the sale of this pattern to the Ottawa Heart Institute in honour of Heart Month. I found myself there a little less than a year ago, having my own ticker repaired, so this is a chance for me to give back a little.