Making a table runner...

[flubba]

I've been asked to make a plain 6 foot table runner for a friend who has a red and cream room so she wants it to coordinate. She had asked for it to be one colour, but I don't think I'll be able to find a width of fabric long enough (and she doesn't really want to spend the money for me to buy the length of fabric) to do it in one go.
Are there any clever ideas to 'hide' the seam? I wondered about either doing it in two lengths of red sewn together, and then something appliquéd into the middle in cream, or will that look odd? Or triangles of each colour the whole way? She's keen on something plain...

All ideas welcome! :)

How about hiding the seam with some appliqués shapes and repeat these along the runner? Could hem the runner in the same colour as the shapes.

Not a bad idea - what shapes? Stars? A few sporadic stars (central) along the length, and then a big star with ever decreasing size smaller stars along the seam line?

Sorry, went off on one out loud with a design in mind :o

Thanks, that was really helpful. Will put it to friend and see if she's as excited as I am :)

Sorry for having not known your trouble, if there are some picture of your table runner, maybe I can help you.

If you made the seam in the middle what about some wide cream ribbon to cover the seam then add a couple of rows at either end.

Thanks yuleheart ~ so like a couple of stripes either end of the runner as well as the middle one?

How about patching it as if the squares were different colours but are actually the same?

Cutting up the fabric into squares and then patching them back together? That might work although it might be a bit bumpy if the fabric is thick at all.

Thanks all for these ideas - keep them coming! :)

Yes, two or three stripes of ribbon at either end then one in the middle to cover the join.
You could do one two inches from the end, the next one three inches above that then the next one four inches above that one or place them all at equal distances.

Lay the cut runner pieces down, pin the middle ribbon in place then experiment with placing the other pieces.

I think I would be tempted to construct it from large triangles of a single colour so the seams form a zigzag across the width of the runner and become something of a feature, especially if you top stitch either side of the seams using a contrasting colour (a metallic thread perhaps?).

Or perhaps you could suggest shorter table runners that go across the width of the table rather than along the length (one for each pair of facing place settings)?

I like L's idea.

You could hand stitch a runner stitch in the contrasting colour using embroidery thread, e.g. red triangles, cream runner stitch.

pretend I said running, not runner.

I'd thought of doing triangles, but of different colours which I thought would look a bit odd - I like the idea of doing them in one colour and with cream stitching over the top :)

Thanks ladies :)