Braided Runner

It has been a long winter (read no quilting was done, nada, nothing, the sewing room had cobwebs in it). Spring is upon us and I am quilting again.  This is a braided table runner made from strips.  The pattern is from the magazine "Sew it...today" (October/November 2013) issue.  I love braids. I use to braid my girlfriends hair all the time when I was growing up.  We did french braids, fish tails, and just plain braids. Alas, I have no girls hair to braid.  Just my own, and that's not the same.  So this quilt will have to do.  The directions were very easy to follow and the quilt was actually fun to make. I liked seeing the braid grow longer and longer.  It took me a long time to finish it because I got stuck on how I was going to put the backing on. I tried one long stitch down the center but the back looked all puckered.  So I took that out and then spray basted the heck out of the thing making sure it was really stuck together.  Then I pinned it for extra protection.  I finally decided to stitch in the ditch on every third row. This worked out nicely as the back was smooth and the zigzag followed the pattern.  The binding was also tricky because I couldn't decide on the right color.  Finally, this is the finished product.

Happy Quilting!