Polkadot table runners

I strip-pieced these as one huge piece of fabric and then sliced it twice accross the stripes to create 3 strippy table runners. You could easily do something similar with a jelly roll of fabric (But I bought polkadot fabric off the bold and then cut it in strips 1"- 3" wide)

Once sandwiched I decided to give myself the opportunity to practice some different quilting idea's. On the first runner I quilted 'in the ditch' using red thread. I quite like the simplicity of this and that is doesnt detract from the sharp contrast between the red/white polkadots.

On the second runner I decided to really try and master stiple/meander FMQ in white thread. At first I didnt try too hard not to loop, figuring it was better to actually have a loop and keep the curly organic shape happening, rather than create sharp corners when I veered away from a loop. By the end of the quilt I really felt like the whole "stiple" motion had clicked into place and that I was acheiving an even stitch length most of the time. On the back, however, the tension went a bit funny in a couple of places so I still have a bit to go before I really feel like I have mastered the stipple!

For the third runner I really felt like trying some sort of fee-hand motif down each strip. For the fatter strips I quilted some flowers- they are very wonky, but that is completely the look I was after. On the white strips I used white thread and on the red strips I used red thread, just to make sure the flowers werent too obvious!
This is the backing fabric, and I bound each runner with a candycane stripe.
My favourite runner is the one with the wonky flower quilting, but when I showed them to my mum she preffered the one with the open stipple. She liked this one because the quilting was more obvious, but thats the reason I dislike it. To me the quilting is an accompaniment to the quilt while the fabric/piecing is the melodu- so the quilting should support the fabric/piecing but never outshine or detract from it.