It all began with a quilter’s garage sale this past summer. I found a table runner kit for $3. I could see a cheerful red geranium border print folded into a plastic zipper bag along with batting and backing. The title on it said “60 Degrees of Separation.” It looked like a fun project, so I bought it.

When I got home, I discovered that the directions were missing. No wonder the kit was so cheap! I did a little detective work online, and while I couldn’t find that exact pattern title, I did stumble into the world of 60-degree triangle patchwork, and I was hooked.

I decided to practice before cutting into the gorgeous geranium print, so I went on the lookout for border prints, which are needed in this process. I asked three different older female employees at Joann Fabrics and not one had ever heard of a border print. Sigh. Fortunately, a few days later, I was at the Nancy’s Notions booth at the Quilt Expo in Madison and found 1+ yard border print pieces for only $6.50 each. I limited myself to two.

Unfortunately, I was so excited to get started on this new-to-me concept that I neglected to take “before photos” of the fabric pieces. Just in case you don’t know what a border print looks like, here are a couple of examples currently on sale at Hancock’s of Paducah, one of my favorite shopping sites on the Internet:

Usually, a border print has decorative and stripe designs running the length of the fabric, i.e. parallel to the selvages. By cutting the fabric into strips, then cutting the strips into 60-degree triangles, you can make kaleidoscope-like designs and turn them into table runners. Leftover triangles can then be turned into a hexagon-shaped table topper, making good use of almost all of the fabric.

This excellent video by Laura Ann Coia explains the process, and is what I used for my first two table runners. She uses a free pattern you can print out instead of a pricey plastic triangle template:

Here is my first table runner:

And here is the hexagon table topper made from the leftover triangles:

These are such fun to make! Next time, another table runner from different fabric.