Sew Cute Runner Series - July

Published July 2026

Learn how to make the Sew Cute July Table Runner in this step-by-step tutorial with Jen at Shabby Fabrics! This video is for quilters of all levels looking to create a beautiful, patriotic-themed table runner using two essential quilting techniques: Half Square Triangles (HSTs) and Flying Geese. Jen shares invaluable tips for precision and efficiency, including how to use the HST Perfect Papers and the Ultimate Flying Geese Tool.

In this video, you'll learn:

• How to create accurate Half Square Triangles using HST Perfect Papers.
• Efficient methods for constructing Flying Geese units, including using the Ultimate Flying Geese Tool.
• A reliable "sew and flip" technique for creating a perfect square-in-a-square block.

Check the links in the sidebar for everything you need.

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Introduction

July continues the series with patchwork on both ends and just the right amount of applique. As always, the shapes come pre-fused and laser cut, one layer at a time, so there's no tracing and no cutting.

No matter how carefully you cut around an applique circle by hand, it's never quite that perfect arc. Having that already done means you get to focus on the fun part!

Your kit includes those exact fabrics, binding, backing, the laser-cut shapes, and a well tested full color pattern. It also includes a pad of our HST Perfect Papers, one of our newest products, at no extra cost.

Everything in this block comes from our maker team. What follows is how the Shabby maker team actually builds these blocks, including the things they stopped and said were worth mentioning. This is them talking through us to you.

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What You'll Need

From your kit

• Well tested full color pattern
• Fabrics for both blocks and the borders
• Pre-fused, laser-cut applique stars and scallops
• HST Perfect Papers
• Backing and binding fabric

From your sewing room

• Creative Grids Ultimate Flying Geese Tool. Not the Ultimate Flying Geese Tool Two, which covers a different set of sizes.
• Creative Grids seam guide, for drawing your sewing lines
• Creative Grids 3.5" square ruler, optional, for the center square
• Rotary cutter with a fresh blade, plus a pack of refill blades
• Spinning mat
• Clover extra fine patchwork pins. The glass heads won't melt if your iron finds one.
• Heat-erasable fabric marking pen
• Iron at full heat, and a clapper
• Light pad or light box
• Callie Del fusible fleece
• Coordinating thread set

Keep refill blades in the sewing room. If you sew late into the night like a lot of us, a dulling blade has a way of turning into pushing harder rather than changing it. Having a pack on the shelf means you can swap it morning, noon, or night.

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Unpacking the Block

Three techniques build this block, and it's worth seeing them separately before they come together:

• Half square triangles in the four corners
• Flying geese units around the center
• A square in a square center, made with a sew and flip technique

Put four half square triangles together in the right orientation and you have a pinwheel, which is why they turn up in so many quilt blocks.

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Making the Half Square Triangles

The pattern gives you the traditional method, since we never want a project to depend on buying a ruler. Two fabrics right sides together, draw the diagonal, sew a quarter inch on either side, cut in half, and square up. That gives you two at a time, and you'd repeat it three more times for one block.

Because the papers are in your kit, you can skip all of that.

Read your paper first

The size on the paper is a finished size. A 1.5" paper produces units that measure 2" as they come off the sheet, because they haven't been sewn in yet. Once a quarter inch is taken up on all four sides, they finish at 1.5". Worth keeping straight so you reach for the right pad.

Sew and cut

1. Shorten your stitch length to 1.5mm. It adds strength and perforates the paper, doing two jobs at once.
2. Layer two 5.5" squares right sides together.
3. Pin the paper on top, keeping every pin clear of the dashed lines and out of the path of your presser foot.
4. Sew on the dashed lines.
5. Cut on every solid line. The order doesn't matter. If you see a solid line, cut it.

Remove the papers and press toward the fabric your pattern indicates. Lay a ruler across a unit and check: a true 2", with no squaring up at all.

One sheet of paper and two fabrics gives you eight half square triangles in one go.

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The Fast Flying Geese Technique

This method has become the way most quilters make flying geese, and for good reason. Four units at a time, and far more consistent than making them one at a time.

You'll need one larger square and four smaller squares. Repeat the whole process a second time to have enough for both blocks.

Draw your lines

The pattern shows the traditional approach: draw the diagonal corner to corner, then track a quarter inch to the left and right of it. That works perfectly well.

Our preference is the Creative Grids seam guide. Set it corner to corner and draw down either side with a friction pen, so you're sewing on a line rather than tracking beside one.

Position, pin, and trim the overlap

1. Place two small squares in opposite corners of the large square, right sides together.
2. Pin. Holding everything still by hand usually ends in seam ripping.
3. Reach underneath and trim away the overlap where the two small squares meet, cutting only the top layer.

Trimming that overlap is a maker team habit, not a pattern instruction. The bulk sitting in the middle isn't doing anything for you. Cutting it out leaves only what's needed and the unit lies noticeably flatter.

Sew, cut, and press

1. Sew on your drawn lines.
2. Lay a straight edge corner to corner and cut, giving you two halves.
3. Press to the outside.
4. Set a third small square into the corner of each half, checking that the drawn lines run straight up into the valley. Pin, sew, cut, and press away.

You now have four oversized flying geese units. Oversized is a lovely thing, because trimming to an exact size means you don't have to be perfect at this stage.

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Trimming Your Flying Geese

The pattern asks for units trimmed to 2" x 3.5". That can be done with a standard ruler, but it involves working out where to start, halving 3.5", and lining up an X against a quarter inch, with plenty of room for error along the way.

Sometimes the right answer isn't more fabric in your cart. It's the right tool. A specialty ruler adds real precision and speed to a block, and it's easy to end up with rooms full of fabric and only one ruler to cut it with.

Your pattern tells you exactly which guide to use: line C, which the tool lists as 1.5" x 3" finished. That's 2" x 3.5" unfinished, matching what the pattern asked for.

1. Set the tool on your unit with line C dropped right into the V. The right side and top will be exposed.
2. Trim those two sides.
3. Rotate the mat and switch to the trim two function, still on letter C.
4. Line up and trim the remaining two sides.

Make sure it's the original Ultimate Flying Geese Tool. There's a newer Ultimate Flying Geese Tool Two, and it covers a different set of eight sizes for different projects. For this block you want the original.

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The Square in a Square Center

A 3.5" center square and four smaller squares, joined with a sew and flip.

1. Draw a line corner to corner on the back of each small square. Don't use the seam guide for this one, since you'll be sewing directly on the line rather than either side of it.
2. Place two squares in opposite corners and sew right on the drawn line.
3. Press to the outside before you trim.
4. Lay the dashed line of any Creative Grids ruler along your stitching and trim the excess.
5. Repeat in the remaining two corners.

Pressing before trimming lets you catch anything that went askew. Every now and again a square shifts slightly on its way to the machine. Press first, look at it, and you still have all the fabric you need to put it right. Why this method rather than cutting triangles? Some quilters make a square in a square by cutting a larger piece on the diagonal, which creates a bias edge immediately. This way keeps you away from bias altogether, which matters in a precise patchwork block. A little fabric gets trimmed away, and it's a small trade for a stable, beginner friendly result.

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Assembling the Block

The block is only as accurate as the pieces going into it. With every element trimmed to size, the block comes together the way it should. You still need an accurate .25" seam allowance, but imperfect ingredients can't produce a perfect block.

Where to look as you sew

When you add a flying geese unit, look at where the two seams cross near the point. That crossing is where your needle should pass, or a hair to the right of it.

Watch that spot as you approach it, keeping the two fabrics stacked exactly top to bottom, and your points come out sharp.

Pinning intentionally

Stack the two pieces so they sit exactly on top of each other, then pin on the inside, away from where you'll stitch. Being deliberate about those few pins is what brings your points together, every time.

Clover extra fine patchwork pins are worth the small investment. The glass heads mean an iron passing over a forgotten pin won't melt anything onto your block, which is a mistake that costs you a whole section.

Pressing the seams open

Your instructions call for these seams pressed open, which distributes the bulk and lets the block lie flat.

Have your iron at full heat and a clapper ready. A seam pressed open and held flat while it cools stays open, and later on, when everything gets sewn together, nothing is fighting you.

Everything happens better when the block lies flat!

Sew your top and bottom rows into the middle, press everything open, then add your side and top borders. Make two blocks for the runner.

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The Applique

Bring your iron back down to medium heat.

Give the paper backing a good firm crease. Turn the shape paper side up and crease it, and the paper releases cleanly. The fabric can take it. What damages a shape is digging at the edge or working a pin in there, which frays and snags it.

Set your light source up, lay out the diagram, and position your stars wherever you like. The scallops go on the same way.

Nobody particularly enjoys cutting perfect scallops, which is exactly why they arrive already cut!

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Finishing the Runner

You have a choice about when to stitch your applique down.

Our preference is to wait. Add your borders, fuse the Callie Del fusible fleece to the back, add your backing, and then stitch the applique shapes down through all the layers. That's what gives them the embossed look, and it does your quilting at the same time.

On a lighter weight machine, stitch your shapes down first. If you'd rather not push all those layers through while pivoting around a star, stitch the applique before you assemble the runner. Either order works, so do what suits your machine.

Trim the excess fleece and backing, then bind.

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This is a really fun series. If you have an entryway table or a spot behind the couch where a full length runner would be too long, these are exactly the right size!