Adventures in quilting!

So I've wanted to become one of those cool people. Of course you know who they are: the quilters! The task always seemed sooo daunting to me and while I like to tell myself that I can pick out fun fabrics, I rarely follow through and make something out of them. 

Not anymore, folks. This mama went ahead and finally is in the process of making something out of the cute Halloween fabric picked up at Joann's fabrics.

Not really having any idea of what pattern to work with, and not wanting to do just square blocks of fabric stitched together, I decided to cut 8-inch long strips of fabric  of all 5 materials that I got. (Fancy, I know.) While the length was pretty uniform, the width was off on the different fabrics. Oops. Just kept working with it!

Next, I found that laying some fabric horizontal and some vertical made a pretty cool look. The husband approved, so I went with it, and decided to make a new Halloween themed table runner!! 

After arranging and sewing the top together, I hemmed the edges as straight as I could, and then made another trip to Joann's for interfacing and black fabric for the back. Cut the interfacing and black fabric to size, hemmed the black backing... And that's where I am now. 

Next up: hand quilting the front, middle, and back together, to keep the layers together... 

Here's a pic of the stage I am at now - will post a pic of the final thing laid out on my table afterwards!