V and Co: how to: make a spiderweb table runner

 we are "enjoying" the last day of our four day weekend over here. give a girl a month and half of all 4 kids in school and my how i forget so quickly how it is to have them around.every.waking.moment.of.the.day.
anwho
  last year i was all humbug about the holidays. i think i was trying to get my life more simplistic from having a tumultuous 6 months of moving and crazyiness that we were in as a family. decorating for each holiday didn't fall in the "simplistic" category last year as we were still trying to find couches, get in the routine of a new state, a new school, and new time zone, and new EVERYTHING...this year, though my life is far from crazy...okay wait. maybe crazy isnt the right word to use...my life is busy... i do find myself wanting to make the holidays kind of fun. soooo i made this fun runner  last week in prep for the upcoming holiday. the kids thought it was cool. the third noise maker said "did you know that spiders make webs out of their butts?" to which the girl noisemaker was like "EWWWWW!!!"

*sigh* yup. 

anywho

i'm not a huge fan of cartoonish looking decor, like ever...i decided a spiderwebbed table runner might be cool, i experimented and then liked it enough, so i decided to make a how to on it. 

here it is:

 what you need:
two strips of fabric (mine is linen) cut to 15" x WOF (usually around 42"-44")
batting same size
ruler
erasable pen (mine is the FriXion Ball Erasable Gel Pen)
basting safety pins (like these.)


okay here's what i did:

1.first take your ruler and pen and draw a couple of large Xs on one of your linen 15" x WOF pieces.

(hint: it's helpful to keep in mind how spiderwebs work: they usually have to be attached to an edge or to each other. )

2. also drew a couple of small X's in the corners or on the sides here and there.

3. once you have your X's placed out, start drawing a few more lines, having a few connect and stop at the other spider web's lines.

4. draw slightly curved lines starting from the most inside part of the web.
**remember webs aren't perfect! with wind and weather they aren't perfectly even lines! :)

continue to draw your curved lines...

5. once all your spiderwebs are done grab your batting and second 15"xWOF piece of linen and sandwich them linen, batting, spiderweb linen.

6. baste your runner with your pins.

7. pick a stitch on your sewing machine.
on this bernina i had a lot of options but i went with just a basic #7 because i thought it would show up better than a smaller stitch...and i'm still learning all the ins and outs on the machine...so i didn't want to complicate things for myself just yet.
of course if you have lots of options on your sewing machine play around on a practice piece of fabric to see what other stitches would go good. (if you make one of these make sure you post them in the V and Co flicker!!! )

CREATING THE SPIDER WEBS
first things first, we are going to treat this like we were quilting the runner, so here are some steps that are kind of important. :)
1. position your needle over your drawn line.
2. holding the top thread so it doesnt go anywhere, place your needle in the downward position.

3. and then bring up the needle again. (you are basically doing ONE stitch)

4. when you look under the foot you should see the bobbin thread.

5. pull out your bobbin thread.

6. holding both threads now start to stitch on your drawn line.
7. repeat these last few steps EVERY time you you stop and start up again a new place in your spider webbing stitching.

8. slightly guide the fabric in a curved line to follow your curved line, go slow if you need to.

9. as you quilt more of your runner, remove the pins as you go. :)
10. continue till you finish all your lines!!!

11. to bind: use my binding instructions! :)

and there you have it. a pretty darn cool looking one of a kind table runner.

now go make lots of spiderwebs...but not from your butts. that would be kind of gross and an epic fail. (cause you would be pooping) <---just thought i'd spell it out just in case.
we'll talk soon.