The Juliette Runner

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Written by lenneamw

Several weeks ago, I pieced together a table runner using the blocks from Esther Aliu’s Juliette pattern. I am making a full Juliette quilt and I figured a bit of practice would be helpful.

I had the deep green grunge in stash, a small amount of the grunge blackberry, and a coordinating Japanese print that I bought about 10 yrs ago. Perfect use of stash! This is done in raw edge applique, using Heat n Bond lite and 40 wt high gloss applique threads.

Working on the layout.
Juliette does have Y seams. The key to the Y seam is careful marking of your 1/4′ seam in each direction. Pin carefully; sew to the mark and stop. Then pin and sew the other direction
My applique threads.
Applique in the flowers. Pale lemon on the petals and matching purple and green in the center.
I filled the center block with a couple of wavy deco stitches in 4 of my threads.

And now it was time to quilt up this 16.5” x 60” elegant runner. I wanted the Japanese print to be the star of this runner, without a lot of distractions. The connecting squares are fussy cut around an adorable dragon fly and the squares quilted with feathers. I also took some artistic license and made the fabric framing the blocks two tone rather than the same fabric.

I really like the two tone block borders. Since I am keeping it relatively simple, this adds dimension.
Feathers in the connecting squares.
I filled the center block with a couple of wavy deco stitches in purple, matching green, pale yellow and purple variegated. Some of the dots are appliquéd with the bi-directional blanket stitch, and some with a small regular blanket stitch. To quilt it, I echoed stitches to the dots in the FMQ with a swirl.
This makes a nice background for a center piece.
close up of the side FMQ and block
I usually do a dark binding, but in addition to running out of the purple grunge, I really liked using the print on the border to connect with framing pieces.
This will be a fun runner for spring!
The backing. As you can see, I did SID around all my applique elements. I use MonoPoly for all my outline and SID.

I really like the lovely crisp look of Juliette and the possibilities are virtually endless. She can be very traditional, modern, art deco, rustic…this pattern will work with any style you have in mind. She can be very simple or ornate, adorned or quite natural.

Happy quilting!

Lennea

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