Phases Black Table Runner
Phases is a free mini quilt pattern I designed in 2019. It’s a modern, geometric, beginner-friendly quilt pattern and a fun, quick project for all sewing levels. The design is made up of simple half square triangles and split quarter square triangles with lots of background space and a one-inch border. Like my studio name, this design was inspired by the phases of the moon. Just like the moon, life waxes and wanes with excitement, creativity, wonder, and amusement and I wanted a light-hearted project to reflect that and represent my brand. This particular quilt is the first table runner size I made of this pattern and has a permanent spot on my dining table.
The Backstory
Before designing Phases, I was in the middle of writing my first attempt at a quilt pattern for my Flint design and was getting frustrated. I was creating printable templates, charts full of fabric and cutting requirements, cutting diagrams, and instructional copy all for the first time and I was feeling like I jumped into the deep end of the pool with no floaties on. And then, on top of that, because of my inability to click that little save icon frequently enough and an unexpected thunderstorm-induced power outage, I lost my computer file and all the progress that came with it. I was ready to quit! Feeling idiotic and incompetent over my situation I needed to prove to myself that I could actually write a quilt pattern, but Flint wasn’t the way to do that. So, I decided to start on a smaller scale. Enter dreams of mini quilts, HSTs, and SQSTs, and *poof* the Phases design was conceived.
Design Inspiration
A big part of creating this design was wanting to play with the split quarter square triangle blocks. I was finding myself a bit obsessed with them at the time and I actually released a series of free patterns including them in 2020. SQSTs are so versatile, the pattern opportunities are endless! Another aspect I kept in mind while designing Phases was making it adaptable for multiple ratios. I wanted the design to look good in a square (for the pillow layout), a rectangle (for the wall hanging), and in a line (for the table runner). Once I set these parameters for myself I was able to quickly put the pictures from my mind to paper and compile all the needed elements to write my first quilt pattern.
Fabrics & Quilting
This table runner is one of my all-time favorite makes (who am I kidding, they’re ALL my favorite) especially because of the color scheme. I’m a sucker for dark and moody palettes. The solid black used for the background is Kona Cotton Black, and the remaining fabrics are all Robert Kaufman Essex Linens. The solids are Aqua and Malibu from the Yarn Dyed collection and the brown print is Boxed in Espresso from the Balboa collection designed by Erin Dollar. The quilting lines on this table runner radiate out of the lighter sections of the blocks, kind of like moon rays. This quilting design was a bit trickier in the planning stage but went quite quickly once I finally made up my mind. I used DMC’s Pearl Cotton size 12 instead of size 8 (which is my usual choice) for this project and I was pleasantly surprised. It gives this piece a nice texture and I really like how it turned out but size 8 is still my favorite. I just enjoy working with it more! To finish it off I chose to face this mini quilt instead of bind it because I love how flat a faced quilt lays.
Phases Layouts and Colors
As I mentioned the Phases pattern includes requirements and instructions for three different size mini quilts; pillow, wall hanging, and table runner. When it comes to colors this pattern is pretty simple as it only uses four. One fun aspect is if you decide to simplify it even more, and only use three colors (by using the Background color in place of Color A or B), it really changes the look of the design. I’m partial to quilts with dark backgrounds and I think that aesthetic works particularly well with this design because of its moon-like appearance, but it also works well in lighter color palettes.
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