Table Runner / Trivet

Last Thanksgiving, which was the first time I ever hosted, I had trouble finding places for all of the hot food. I won't dare place hot dishes directly onto the table itself. So I was left with the options of either putting towels under everything (which we don't have enough of anyway) or leaving the dishes on the counter. We did the later, but I didn't like that everyone had to keep getting up from the table.

This year I came up with an idea. Why not make a super long trivet for all the food? So, that is what I did. I pretty much followed my trivet/pot holder tutorial, but just kept the bottom part. Our table can very comfortably seat 10 when the extensions are in place, so I made sure it was long enough to accommodate that. I quilted the insulated batting straight up and down so that the ends would fold over neatly, and so that it would roll up nicely for storage (see the photo above).

This really came together pretty easily - aside from the biased tape. I swear, I hate the stuff. I just can't ever get it to look nice. The fabric, again, was from Granny Grace, so the total on this project set me back I'd say about $5 or $6.

The photos below show how it's used. Unfortunately, I decided to start making this the night before Thanksgiving, and was still working on it when my family arrived. Thankfully they're pretty laid back, so the fact that it still had pins in place, and long threads hanging off the sides didn't phase them :)

I finally sat down and finished this yesterday afternoon.

Have a great day!