Let's Pop Some Corn Table Runner

Hey there, remember this adorable table runner kit from Riley Blake? It is called Let's Pop Some Corn and was designed by Sandy Gervais. The kit features one of her fabric lines called Awesome Autumn. I have loved Sandy's fabric collections for years and nothing puts me in a late summer, early fall mood better than working with her designs. 

The kit has been sitting on a shelf in my sewing room closet for a while and I decided to take a break from the red white and blue projects and try something new.

Well. Things didn't go quite as I might have wished. The kit contains fabric for the background, stars, binding and the corn husks. The tiny little 1 1/2" squares (196 of them) are cut from one charm pack. I needed every single smidgen of that fabric, which means I couldn't starch due to the shrinkage which would cause me to come up short. So I was working with teensy floppy pieces of fabric. Ugh. Not my favorite thing.

Plus the pattern isn't written in a very quilter-friendly way. I had to study that thing for an hour before I figured out what I needed to do. And some of the techniques were a no-go for me. We need to make some half square triangles for this project. Instead of cutting squares a skosh bigger, drawing a diagonal line, sewing, cutting apart etc., here is what we were instructed to do:

Cut 1 7/8" squares and cut them apart diagonally into triangles. We were supposed to sew with tiny little bias edge triangles with no wiggle room to trim down to size. Noooooooooo. What a mess that would be. Of course I didn't do it. I cut 2" squares and drew a diagonal line, sewed on either side of it, cut the sewn square in half and trimmed my HST down to 1 1/2".

Now I am really afraid I won't have enough of the charm pack for my 196 squares. And if you try to trim the zig zaggy edge from the charm pack you won't have enough fabric for sure. I hate those jaggedy pinked edges.

Other problems were no pressing instructions, so I assumed I had to press all those tiny seams open. All of them.

This block took me at least 6 hours (including cutting fabric time). And it was torture to make. The pattern didn't give information on how big the block was supposed to be (seriously?), but I figured
8 1/2 by 10 1/2". My block is a little wobbly, but I think I can fudge things when I sew everything together.

Instead of a 56" long runner with 7 ears of corn, this may end up being a considerably smaller project! I am going to try again today and maybe things will go better now that I have made the beta block. Six more of these may do me in.

Have any of you made this kit? If you have any ideas for streamlining things I 'd love your advice!

Comments

[Mary]

Never saw this pattern, so I can't give advice. It is darling! It really surprises me that the cutting directions are so unforgiving. I'm sure Sandy has cut in error once or twice in her career, she and should have shown some grace in this project. Good luck with this one.

[Christy Johnson]

I wish more designers put the block sizes, as you go, because that would be so helpful. And no wiggle room is frustrtfor aure. The block is adorable, though, and like you, I oftentimes, come up with easier ways to make blocks, particularly HST and flying geese. Your blocks always look great and I so appreciate you sharing your journey with us!

[June]

This pattern is new to me. Your block is beautiful!
I quit buying charm packs and jelly rolls because of the edges. Nothing ever was precise. Unfortunately I bought several before I ever used one. So I cut my frustration and donated the unopened ones to the guild. I love fat quarters! They fit me just right😉

[Susan]

Honestly, I would never sew those teeny squares together. I would dive into my stash and strip piece the ears of corn and graph out the outer pieces. You can guess the size by counting where it is next to the pieced part.It would be really cute but not sure I’d make too many. And I love miniatures!

[sue s]

Sorry, I won't be making this one (I don't own the kit or pattern)!! Too small for me. And 7 of them! I wish you patience and luck. I am working on an older pattern as a leader/ender and it has no sizes for the pieces of the block. I, too make oversize so had to guess at the trim down sizes. It is frustrating.

[Patty]

I made that pattern and it was worth the effort as it really turned out cute. I think I purchased a second charm pack or supplemented with my stash fabrics as the charm pack was not enough to complete the half square triangles. Keep at it! You will be happy with the end results! (And I never starch)

[CarolE]

I sympathize with you! Working with charm squares is really frustrating. You cannot starch them and if you need every bit of the square, the zigzag edges are not consistent. The block is really cute, however, and I wish you luck in completing the rest of the blocks!

[Sandra]

This is really cute but sounds like a challenge. So frustrating to not have any extra fabric in a kit ‘just in case’. Sometimes projects are created on a computer and never made by a real person. I’ve run into this if I’ve used a free pattern from a fabric manufacturer. Good luck!

[Jan]

I made the runner when I first saw it on your blog. It's tedious work. I used my first block as a reference for the others as far as assembly order & pressing. If I recall correctly, the tiny squares are fairly 'lumpy' but once it's quilted it 'calms' down. I finished it without having to purchase anything other than the kit itself & matching fabric for the back when it was still available. It's definitely a great runner for Fall & into Thanksgiving. 🌽🌽

[Carolyn McIntosh]

Such a cute project that it’s well worth the angst! So enjoy your posts.

[Ina]

I see some new names posting...you have a lot of lurkers. ;p

I thought the best idea was to use fabric from your own stash. I know, defeats the purpose of buying the kit. ugh. sewing is supposed to be fun. If it isn't, abandon ship!

I was also thinking about your tiny cornerstone stars...I bet I could find a paper-piecing version to make it less fussy. remember that tiny weekly pattern club we both joined years ago? those blocks were all 3.5". might be a star in there! I made some of those blocks just to fiddle around with it. I still have there somewhere.....

[Carol]

I made this because you showed it on your shelf about two years ago—LOL! So forget about making tiny HSTs— I made a unit of 10 x4 inch squares— then I flip n stitched the corners on that unit with a larger square. One thing I wish I would have watched out for is using white 1: squares where they would be next to my background fabric. It looks like kernels of corn are missing. But I made a fabulous table runner and two pillows if your’re interested you can look at it on my blog.
http://sanfranciscostitchco.blogspot.com/2022/11/satisfaction.html