Tra La! It's May!

With Mother's Day coming up, I figured it was time to get moving on the table runner I want to make for my mom.  I posted this picture of the fabrics back in February and they have been waiting patiently ever since.

My plan was to make a runner with a pattern that I saw on Quiltbug.com that looks like this:

I cut my fabrics and laid them out, but when I stood back and looked at them I wasn't crazy about it.

My eye kept being drawn the the brick red fabric rather than the floral in the center.  I decided to go with a different plan that could still use the strips that I had already cut. 

I sewed the strips together in new arrangement, adding more floral fabric to the mix:

Then I sub-cut it into strips,

and sewed them back together in a staggered pattern.

(Before sewing each pair, I turned one of the strips around 180 degrees so that the seam allowances would all be going in opposite directions.)

After sewing together and adding a few smaller strips to the ends, I ended up with this:

I really like how this new arrangement brings focus to the floral print and the brick red is more of a picture frame.  The two ends look incomplete without the dark border, but I will use the brick red as the binding and that will complete the frame.

Now I have 10 whole days just to get the binding sewn on. 

Raise your hand if you think I will still be sewing binding on the night before!  ( *raises hand*)