If you know me at all, you know that I love vintage textiles. One of my favorite things to do is wander through an antique mall touching and admiring old quilts, vintage linens and lace. I cannot say exactly why, but if I’m really stressed out or tense, a trip through an antique store is better than wine for calming my nerves — which is saying something, because, well, there are very few things better than wine!

Now earlier this year I told you about a set of beautiful hand-pieced vintage Ohio Stars that I found in a second hand store: striking plain red stars on a simple muslin background, in absolutely perfect condition and all ready to be made into something special. There were 12 blocks in the set and I was so happy when I found them.

While I was with Cindy in Ohio this summer, we developed a plan for the stars: a Christmas table runner. We decided to keep it simple to highlight the stars, so we knew that we wanted to set them off with a simple high-quality muslin border. We spent the better part of a week in Columbus looking for the right binding fabric to pull the project together. Alas, no luck. Then on Friday, we headed out to the Cincinnati area to drop in on our friend Tierney from Tierneycreates.com as she participated in the grand opening of a new art quilt exhibit (you can read more about that event here).

It was getting late in the afternoon, but we had the chance to stop at the Fabric Shack in Waynesville, Ohio just before closing time. We only had a little time to shop because we had to get to the museum in time to hear Tierney participate in a panel discussion, but Holy Moly! Score! Eureka! Great Scott! Inside the sale building, literally on the lowest part of the last rack, we found it: The perfect fabric for our table runner (the red check, not the green)!

Cindy made a pro move and cut the binding on the bias to give our simple design some extra sizzle. I am in love with the final result

May I introduce you to the Gray Barn Designs Christmas in Ohio table runner?

Ohio stars in a muslin field.

(I know, I know, the green grass kind of takes away from the ambiance, but we must accept our gloriously long fall weather, as we’ll be complaining about the snow soon enough.)

Cindy’s long arm specialist, SJ, applied a lovely, swirly all-over pattern for the quilting. I hauled out some of my Spode Christmas china to experiment with staging. Swoon…

You can make this pattern even if you don’t have vintage stars! Here’s how:

Christmas in Ohio Table Runner

I can’t wait to sail past the browns and the oranges of Thanksgiving decor and get on with the glitz and glamour of Christmas decorating! I expect this runner to be the star of my show this year.

You will also find this pattern posted on the FAVE Quilts website soon.  If you are searching for just the right Christmas quilt design, you will be sure to find it on FAVE Quilts.  Stop by to take a look at all the FREE quilt patterns.