Paper Pieced Nordic Christmas Star Table Runner
I’m a huge fan of Scandi Christmas decor so this year I fancied whipping up a Nordic inspired Star Table Runner. Its such a simple project using English Paper Piecing and can be done almost entirely by hand, great for evenings in front of the TV!
The finished table runner measures 12 inches by 40 inches or 30cm by 100cm
Ingredients
Winter Wonderland Fabric Bundle
1 Fat Quarter Sevenberry Red Gingham
Aurifil Thread in 2021 and 2250 (red)
3″ 8 Point Diamond Paper Pieces
Sewline Gluepen (if you aren’t thread basting)
1/2 metre Osnaberg
Wadding (I used Warm & White)
How To:
The Stars are made using 8 Point Paper Diamonds but you could also use 6 Point Paper Diamonds for a quicker finish. If using 8 Point Paper Diamonds you will need 24 paper diamond pieces and 24 fabric diamonds. I simply pinned my paper diamond to my fabric and cut around it leaving at least a 1/4 inch seam. I cut 12 white and 12 red diamonds from my fabrics.
Use a glue pen or thread to baste your fabric to your diamond paper pieces. See our post here for thread bastingand here for glue basting. When paper piecing with diamonds don’t cut the off dog ears we will use them later, if possible try and make sure they point the same way.
Sew the diamonds together using whip stitch and red thread. Stitch 4 of your diamonds together to form one side of the star, when you have two sides made up stitch them together to form an eight pointed star.
Repeat to make another two 8 point diamond stars.
Press (iron) your stars, keeping the paper pieces within the star. Take your first star and gently remove the paper pieces, I found that because I had pressed (ironed) my stars with the paper pieces in place when I took them out the stars retained their shape even though I had used my glue pen rather than opt for the more traditional thread basting.
Take your half metre of Osnaberg and fold in half and then in quarters to find the mid point. Pin one star to the centre of this mid point and pin all the diamonds down, applique your star.
Things I found useful when appliquéing my stars:
- When appliquéing your star to the Osnaberg use the same thread colour as the fabric diamond you are stitching.
- Rather than working around each diamond in a clockwise direction take it in turns stitching opposite diamonds down eg. North, then South, East then West, NE then SW etc. to make sure they all lay flat when stitched down.
- I used a large 12 inch embroidery hoop when appliquing to maintain the tension of the Osnaberg.
- When you reach the point of the diamond trim back the dog ear leaving about 1/4 inch poking out, using your needle tuck the dog ear underneath the point and stitch down.
Repeat for remaining Stars ensuring they are lined up.
For the backing patchwork cut 30 squares measuring 4 1/2 inches. Using a 1/4 inch seam sew three squares together for each row, then sew your rows together to form the backing of the runner, you should have 10 rows in total.
Cut some batting slightly larger than the backing, and cut your Osnaberg front down to 12.5 inches wide ensuring your stars are centered in the middle. Layer on top of batting and baste the three layers together using safety pins.
Using your Perle Cotton hand quilt around the stars using running stitch
Once you have finished your quilting take the fabric you are using for your binding and cut into strips 2 1/2 inches wide. Sew all the strips together so you have one strip of fabric. Press the joining seams open and then fold the strip in half and press. With the unfinished edge of the binding aligned to the edge of table runner stitch it down using a 1/4 inch seam. If you haven’t stitched binding before we have a photo how to here
Hand stitch your binding to the back of your table runner.
And thats it you are finished!
Happy Christmas Sewing!
