A week long endeavor...ruffled table runner

Last year I bookmarked Jen's (Tatertots and Jello) ruffled burlap runner as a project to try. Last weekend I decided it was time and that I wanted one with Easter time pastel colors to go under a centerpiece. (I've still got to put the centerpiece together, it's still an idea in my head.) After fighting with my machine to make ruffles for a week, and running out of thread on day three, I have finished. Let me clarify a little- in addition to having issues with the machine and having to redo some stitching and work on the machine, I only had about thirty minutes each night to sew. Thus, a week long project.

Mine is not nearly as neatly done as Jen's. We'll just say mine is more "shabby".  I'm not going to post a tutorial either. No need to reinvent the wheel. Her tutorial is great and you can find another one at Oopsey Daisy.

I used materials from my stash which is really my grandmother's stash. (She passed away almost eight years ago, but I couldn't part with the material so I held onto it hoping for the inspiration to put it to use one day.)  I used a polyester type material for the backing in  yellow the same as the center yellow. I used ribbon for my binding. I love the turquoise against the burlap! My favorite material is the aqua one with a sweet little pink flower.

Here are a couple of things I did differently or that aren't mentioned in the tutorials. I did not have any quilt batting so I did not use it. Also, I laid out all my ruffles on the runner once they were done to get an idea of placement but I did not pin them all down at once. I pinned and sewed the middle one, then the two outer ones, and then one by one, filled in between. I thought this would be easier to manage at the machine than  having all the bulk of all the ruffles laid up there at once, and I could still get the spacing right.

I think that tomorrow I will steam those ruffles and straighten them out a little more.

So, what have you been up to lately? Make anything frustrating that you were still happy with once it was done? Please tell me I'm not the only one.

I'll be linking up to the parties on the side. Check them out.