Sew Cute Runner Series - February

Published January 2026

Join Jen as she shows you how to celebrate the seasons in style with our new Shabby Fabrics Sew Cute Runner Series. Petite, adorable, and beginner friendly, the February runner showcases two patchwork heart blocks that frame a center block of tossed pre-fused laser cut appliqué hearts between scalloped borders. Designed with cheerful Valentine's Day colors, you will enjoy creating this lighthearted project!

In this video, you'll learn:

• The stitch-and-flip technique this whole series is built on — and a beginner-friendly variation that lets you check your work before you trim away any fabric.
• Why cutting a directional fabric like a gingham or stripe means squaring your ruler to the print itself, not just to the fabric’s raw edges.
• How pressing direction creates interlocking seams that let two pieced units snap into perfect alignment with almost no pinning.
• What to do when one pieced section ends up slightly smaller than the one it needs to join — and why that’s a normal, fixable part of patchwork.
• How prefused, laser-cut applique goes from kit to background fabric with nothing more than a light pad and a warm iron, no tracing or hand-cutting required.

Check the links for everything you need.

Introduction

This is the first block in a brand-new twelve-month series: a small table runner block released every month, sized to swap in and out of a favorite little display spot — an entryway table, a spot by your workstation, wherever you like to keep something seasonal on view. Each month’s kit pairs pieced patchwork with a prefused, laser-cut center applique, and this February installment steps through the core piecing technique the whole series is built on.

Every kit ships with a full-color pattern. A black-and-white pattern leaves you guessing which fabric is meant for which space, especially with several similar reds or pinks in play. A full-color diagram removes that guesswork entirely.

The Stitch-and-Flip Technique

You’ll hear this term throughout the whole series: stitch and flip. It’s the technique behind most of this block’s corners, and it’s simple once you’ve done it a few times.

1. Starting with a background piece (a square or rectangle) and a smaller square in the corner fabric, draw a straight line corner to corner on the wrong side of the smaller square.
2. Place the smaller square right sides together in the corner the pattern indicates, and sew directly on the drawn line.
3. Trim away the excess fabric underneath, leaving a quarter inch seam allowance.
4. Press the corner open, toward the outside.

A Beginner-Friendly Insurance Policy

If a corner comes out slightly crooked — the square shifted while sewing, or the seam isn’t quite straight — it’s much easier to fix before you’ve trimmed away the extra fabric underneath. This variation checks your work first:

1. Draw your line and sew, exactly as above.
2. Before trimming anything, press the corner open to the outside and take a look. If you like what you see and the seam is straight, go ahead and trim.
3. If it isn’t quite right, you still have the extra fabric underneath as a cushion — unpick and resew without having lost any fabric to an early trim.

Working with directional fabric? Square your ruler to the print, not just the fabric edge. For a gingham, plaid, or stripe, lining your ruler up with your machine’s stitch length as a reference isn’t enough on its own — line the ruler up with the fabric’s own woven lines before you cut, so the cut edge tracks parallel to the print itself. A fabric cut slightly off that grain will visibly wander once it’s pieced into the block.

Building the Center Flying Geese Units

The block’s center section is built from a pair of flying-geese-style units, each assembled with the stitch-and-flip technique on both corners of a rectangle — one unit is simply the mirror image of the other, with the corner fabric and background fabric swapped.

Pressing direction matters more here than it might seem. Follow your pattern’s pressing arrows exactly, even when it means pressing toward a different fabric on the upper section than on the lower one — that’s what creates interlocking seams once the two sections are joined.

Interlocking seams let a block snap into alignment. When two seam allowances are pressed in opposite directions on purpose, stacking the pieces right sides together lets you physically feel them lock into place at the seam — there’s only one place for that intersection to sit. Pin directly through that locked point before sewing, and a perfectly matched point at the seam is almost guaranteed.

When a seam is reluctant to press open flat — a common thing with several layers meeting at one point — a clapper (or a small pressing tool like a Purple Thang or presser bar) helps considerably. Press the seam with a hot iron, then set the clapper on top and hold it there for a few seconds; the weight of the wood cools and flattens the seam far more effectively than the iron alone.

Piecing the Left and Right Sides

The block’s left and right sides are each built from more stitch-and-flip units, following the same technique used for the center. Assemble the corner units for each side, then join them together and press per your pattern’s arrows — usually toward the busier or accent fabric so the seam allowance has somewhere to nest later.

Once you have a complete left side and a complete right side, join them to the center section:

1. Pin at any point where seams need to match exactly — not just at the raw edges, but directly through the intersection itself.
2. Sew a scant quarter inch seam, using your machine’s seam guide to stay consistent.
3. Press per your pattern’s instructions, usually toward the section with fewer seams so bulk stays distributed evenly.

If one section is a little smaller than the other, that’s normal — and fixable. A section built from many small seams accumulates tiny amounts of error faster than a simpler section does, usually from sewing just a thread or two over a true quarter inch, seam after seam. Pin the critical matching points first, then work the fullness in with pinning and a firm press — pressing alone can often “grow” a slightly short section back to size. Everything in between the pinned points simply has to fit, and with a bit of easing, it will.

Adding the Prefused Applique

One of the real time-savers of this series is that the applique shapes arrive prefused and laser cut — no tracing a diagram onto fusible webbing and no hand-cutting around a curved edge, which is nearly impossible to get perfectly smooth by hand anyway.

1. Each shape has a white paper backing. Give it a firm press with a hot iron to release the paper — you’ll see a slight sheen appear where the fusible glue is exposed once the paper lifts away.
2. Using a light pad underneath your background fabric and the pattern’s printed placement line, position each shape exactly where it belongs. A light pad makes this dramatically easier than trying to eyeball placement, especially on a background print that’s hard to see through.
3. Once everything is placed to your liking, press to fuse — working section by section, holding the iron in place for five or six seconds without sliding it, so nothing shifts out of position.

Keep your iron on medium heat for fusible applique, not the higher heat you’d use for patchwork. Some fusible products can fail to bond properly, or even weaken, at very high temperatures. Dial your iron back to medium specifically for this step, then back up when you return to regular piecing.

If a piece shifts slightly right after fusing, you can often fix it: reheat that spot, lift the piece quickly while it’s still warm, and reposition it right away. It won’t work once the piece has fully cooled and bonded, but caught in the moment, it’s an easy save.

Consider stitching the applique down permanently, either with a straight stitch or a decorative stitch of your choosing, but hold off until after your project is layered with batting and backing if you want an embossed, raised look — stitching through all the layers together lets the applique read more dimensionally than stitching it to the background alone. A nonstick needle is worth switching to for this step, since it’s specifically designed to interact well with fusible webbing residue on the needle.

Finishing the Runner

With your block pieced, appliqued, and bordered to size:

1. Attach your fusible fleece or batting to the back of the pieced top, fusible side toward the wrong side of your fabric, and press with a pressing sheet or parchment paper between the batting and your iron to avoid getting glue on the iron itself.
2. Layer with your backing fabric, pretty side down, and secure the layers with spray baste, a temporary glue stick, or basting pins — whatever method you already prefer.
3. Quilt as desired. A simple straight stitch along the patchwork seams and around the applique gives it that embossed look; feel free to add more elaborate quilting if you’d like.
4. Square up the finished piece, trimming away excess batting and backing, and finish with your binding of choice.

Making your binding ahead of time saves a step later. Cutting and pressing your binding strip while you’re already cutting the rest of your fabrics — then setting it aside on a binding holder until you need it — means it’s ready to go the moment your quilting is finished.

Twelve months, twelve small blocks, each one a fresh reason to swap out that little display spot. This first block sets the rhythm the rest of the series will build on: stitch and flip for the piecing, a light pad and a warm iron for the applique.

Pick up this month’s Sew Cute Runner kit, its coordinating thread set, and any notions you need — and watch for next month’s installment before this one even hits your calendar.