Runner Finally Finished

In 2015 and 2016 I was making a lot of edgings and runners. A few days ago I found one of those edgings pinned to a runner hiding in a drawer. I remember this runner and the edgings, I just didn't remember that I hadn't finished it. I thought now was a good time to do that.

The first side went smooth, fitting the edge the way it should, the way it had been pinned to the material for more than 10 years. 

Then I started on the second edge. I found a mistake that might be the reason I didn't finish this.

The edging is obviously missing something, like the last clover. I must have been in a hurry to finish, or maybe just tired. It wasn't that hard to fix, just untat that last chain and open the last ring and add more thread. Then redo the ring and chain and finish with the clover. 

Ta-da! The end looks much better now!

It was then the next issue was discovered. Not noticing the mistake back in the day, I had pinned it out as if it should go all the way across the end of the material even though it was one clover short, stretching it to make it fit. A good guess this was what kept me from finishing sewing the edging on. With the clover added the edging was now a bit too long, as the thread had been stretched out. 

Have you ever had this problem? I had to think about it a bit to come up with a way to make it fit. My solution was to soak it in very hot water then dry it with a hot hair dryer to shrink it. It helped. I still had to sew it down carefully, but it doesn't stick over the edge!

As I worked with this, I remembered the reason I was never in a hurry to finish it. You can probably tell that the edges aren't exactly straight. I liked the material but found when I went to cut it out that the pattern on the material wasn't straight with the thread of the material. I had to play with the layout to get it cut and have it look right. Then I had issues with sewing straight lines for the edges. I decided this edging would be mine, whenever it was completed. 

Now, after 10 years, it is done. It will look good on my table. And I will probably be the only one to notice that there are issues with it. If anyone does notice, I'll bet they won't say anything, LOL.

The pattern for Emma is on My Patterns page. There is a note on it, under the picture, that the stitch count in a couple of places was changed but I didn't get a new picture with the change. 

It took me 10 years to complete this UFO. Not quite the longest I've ever had, but close. How long has it taken you to complete a UFO?

"Normal people...believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet."  

Scott Adams