Mini Rhombus Table Runner Quilt Tutorial

with
Jenny Doan

Mini Rhombus Table Runner Quilt Tutorial

Quilt Size: 33" x 18"
Jenny demonstrates how to make a beautiful rhombus table runner quilt using 5 inch squares of precut fabric. For this project, Jenny chose a "Grunge Metallics" Charm Pack by BasicGrey for Moda Fabrics. These mini tumbling blocks are easy to make with our Missouri Star Small Rhombus Template, and all those little triangles are sewn in rows with no y seams!
Supplies list
Machine
Quilting

Finish your masterpiece and let us give it the finishing touch it deserves.

Subscribe to MSQC on YouTube
Hundreds of FREE tutorials and a new one from Jenny launches every Friday.

video transcript

Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. And I’ve got a fun project for you today. But this quilt behind me is a tutorial that I’ve already done.This is our Rhombus quilt and you can see there’s a great tutorial on this. And you guys can go and watch it. But the minute we made this quilt with our big rhombus you guys were asking for the small template. You wanted to make the little tumbling block quilt. So here we are. We have the little one. We have the baby. And this is the little project that I’ve made. And it’s just so darling and cute. I wanted to see what size we could get with a charm pack. And it’s made exactly the same way so let me show you how I did this. To make this quilt I used one packet of five inch squares. And these are Basic Grays Grunge Metallics for Moda. And the grunges are so fun and then they’ve got these little metallic dots on them. For this little table runner right here we used a half a yard for our border. And the backing is ¾ of a yard. And we put this cute grunge on the back. Now you’ll think, this looks small, ¾ of a yard and it measures exactly half a yard. But when you quilt it you’ve got to have some extra room on either side and so that’s why it brings it up to ¾ of a yard. So this is just as easy as this one back here because basically all it is is it’s like rhombus, triangle, rhombus, triangle, rhombus, triangle and we built these in long cubes.

The fun part about working the metallics is that there’s all these different shades and so I was able to go through my stack, and to make this little block you’re going to need a light, a medium and a dark. And you see we kind of have that. Our dark and our medium are always going to be our big one. And the light one is going to be the small triangles. And by the big one I mean, the rhombus. So what we’re going to do first is we’re going to take these little five inch squares and I’m going to cut them in half like this. And then what I’m going to do is I’m going to set that part aside because that will make another block and I’m going to take my light one off. And I have my two, the medium and the dark green here. And we’re going to cut our rhombuses out of those. So I’m going to lay my rhombus right on here like this and I’m just going to trim around it, just like this. And let me make sure I’ve got these little ends off. Oop don’t want to, don’t want to cut too much right there. There we go. But cutting the little ends off helps you, helps you notch them together. Alright now these are our two rhombus sides.

Now for this other little side right here, we’re going to take our tool and right here where it has the line on the bigger side of the triangle, you’re going to line that right up on here.And we’re going to cut two triangles out of this other piece. So we’re going across here and down there. I’m going to kind of pull this out and I’m going to dog ear these corners. And then I’m going to flip this around and cut from the other side. So just like this. My ruler slid a little bit but not enough to matter. Alright so now we have these two triangles. Now the fun part with this is laying these out because this is how they’re going to go. Your dark on is always going to go on the left. Your medium one is going to go on the right. And your triangles are always going to be the top of your, to me it’s like a little box. I call it a little box. So the triangles are always going to be the top of your box. So as you start laying these out, I have a little pile of them here. And we’re going to make, we’re going to make a whole bunch of them. And you lay them out just, just how you want to sew them together. But eventually they’re going to be sewn together in columns. So we’re going to start here.

You always want to remember it’s going to go triangle, rhombus, triangle, rhombus. So when you start for your next color you’re going to put your triangle there, your dark is going to go on that side, your medium is going to go on this side and this is going to go here. And we’re just going to lay a bunch of these out so you can see what I’m talking about here. So we’ve got, again, our little triangles in here and our medium and our dark and a triangle. And you’re going to move these around a few times because you’re going to go oh I don’t want that, you know, that red by that black or whatever. And we’re going to put this one in here and this one here and these two up here. See the boxes that are beginning to form? Can you see it taking shape? It’s so cute. Alright I’m going to go ahead and stick this one in here. Here’s my lid. And this is generally known, you know the old name for this is the tumbling block quilt and that’s the old name for it. And you’re going to lay your whole thing out and fit as many in here as you can get to the size that you want. And then you’re going to be ready to sew it together.

Now when you sew it together you’re going to separate these rows like this. And this is why you have to lay it out because it’s, you’ve got to keep your boxes together. And I can’t personally do it without laying it out. I guess that’s why I want you to lay it out is because I can’t really do it without laying it out. So we’re going to separate these little rows like this. And we’re going to sew it together row by row. And they’re going to be sewn together in long columns. So let me show this for you right here. So we’re going to sew this row, we’re going to sew this row. And you’ll make it as long as you want to make it and then when you’re ready you’ll just sew these two rows together like this. And so the sewing goes together so easily. And especially on this one, they’re tiny short little seams so it’s not harder but it’s much quicker. Now I’m just going to stack them like, pick them up like I stack them. Now if that’s hard for you just pick up two at a time and sew them together. So I’m going to go ahead and sew these two and they go, remember, in a column. You’re going to sew them, so a row straight down. And I’m just going to sew four of them together. So we’re going to start with the triangle. And then we’ve got our rhombus right here. And you want to lay it out to make sure it stays in a row. It’s kind of easy to get turned a little bit. So then I’m going to lay this one on here like this. And I’m going to sew this one. And the little notches help you match things up. And I’m going to sew this one on here like this. It just goes together so easy. Alright. So obviously this isn’t as long as my runner. My runner has seven pieces in a row. But see how quickly this goes together. There we go. Now when you go to put your rows together you want to make sure that when these two come together they’re coming together like this. You know, that they’re doing that. Maybe we should just sew this row together too just to see, so you can see the two rows because it’s pretty quick. Alright so I’m going to line these up again and just sew across here. Now I’m actually, I’m having a little thought. I want to make sure we’re still going the right way.

So I’m going to bring this over here and look. It’s a good thing I listened to my inner gut. You have this sewing inner gut and this triangle has been on the wrong side. And when I was sewing, I was like, I don’t think this is on the right side. So it’s really good to remember those and go ahead and check it before you get a whole row done and have it be wrong. Alright, hang on, this is my fast ripping right here. Don’t try this at home. Alright, I’m going to lay this on here again. And I am going to look at where this is supposed to go. And it’s supposed to go on this side. So we’re going to do this one more time. And hopefully when we check it, it will be perfect.There we go. Alright. Now let’s look. Ahhh! Now we can sew the rest of the row together because once you get that first one on the right side, you just have to remember that it has to stay in one long column. So the rest of it should be a piece of cake. I love how we do that though. I mean I know there are lots of you out there and as you’re sewing along you’re going, wait a minute something doesn’t feel right. Always stop and check because it’s way easier to check than it is to pick and pick. Alright so now I’m going to put this one on, keep it in the same row. And you’ll notice I just kind of finger press that down with my thumb. You can go to the ironing machine. When you do little projects like this it’s really fun to make yourself a little nest so that you have a place to sew things together and you don’t have to get up and move and get up and move. Alright, so here’s my next row. And I’ve got some threads here so let me trim those. And then see how this is going to go together, just like this. And I can just lay this on top of here now when I’m ready to sew my column. And I’m going to match up my little seams where they come together and lay it on there. Now remember I only have four on mine and you need to have, well you can have as many as you want actually. But you know I’m going to go ahead and cut up the whole rest of my pack and make mine a lot bigger. So let’s press this out. Whew I’ve got a lot of threads on here. I’m missing my thread cutter today. There we go. Alrighty. Going to press this open. Give it some steam. And look how cool this is. So this is how it’s all going to go together. It’s going to go together in rows just like this. And you’re going to do your long rows and sew it together.

Now when you’re ready for the top, when you have all your rows sewn together, you’re going to have this top that goes like this and we cut ours off straight. So what I did was I just laid my ruler right along this top edge here. And just trimmed it off and then just added my border. And it comes together super quick and easy. And it’s really fun. Now if you need additional instructions there’s a whole tutorial on the big one as well and basically they’re put together the exact same way, triangle, rhombus, triangle, rhombus. So don’t stress about it, give it a try and have a lot of fun with this new little tiny rhombus. And we hope you enjoyed this tutorial on the Mini Rhombus Table Runner from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.

...
Share your Quilts
& Progress on Social
#MSQC