This is the second binding I made for this quilt. With the first one I really messed up the mitered corners, I thought I could 'save' the whole thing by cutting into the binding that was already on the quilt (instead of just unpicking and starting over) and replacing the terrible corners with new nicely mitered ones. That was not a good idea and the thought of unpicking the old binding and making a whole new one wasn't very appealing. So I left the unfinished quilt in my WIP basket for a month until this weekend. I made a nice new green binding and sewed it on the front of the quilt by machine. Then I thought I might try sewing it on the back by machine as well. I had read about it
here and thought I should be able to do it too. Wrong! There were gaps, there was wobbly stitching, it looked horrendous. So I unpicked that too and went back to sewing the binding to the back of the quilt by hand while (half) watching Back to the Future and then the X factor and I'm still not done with the sewing. Hopefully I will be able to show you the finished quilt later this week!
Luckily my embroidery 'experiment' was more successful. I tried my hand at the
Feathered chain stitch and enjoyed it very much. I used Carina's left handed version of her book
Borders and Beyond (which I gave away to a lucky winner yesterday!) and basically it's a nicely arranged combination of
Lazy Daisy Stitches. I tried to make the ones below a bit broader so it would look more like fern or something.
Ooh and I almost forgot to share a rather gross fabric stash experience! I have a
very nice cupboard in which I keep my fabric stash. Some of the smaller cuts are in plastic baskets. It's all reasonably well organised. I was rummaging through one of those baskets to find fabric for the quilt binding when I felt something odd. It was a dead fly. A dead fly! Not a tiny one either. In my fabric stash. Not on top but somewhere in between the fabrics. Eeeew! If you have any scary fabric tales to tell do share them in the comments. ;)
From a very happy lucky winner... Here is a link to a brilliant tutorial to get those mitred corners right...
ReplyDeletehttp://oldredbarnco.blogspot.com/2009/06/quilt-along-week-7.html
Hope it helps! x
oooh but I forgot to mention that the mitered corners did turn out very nice (well quite nice anyway) the second time. I used the description in Denyse Schmidt's Quilt book. :)
ReplyDeleteMy scary fabric story-I had stashed some fabric in a drawer. I opened the drawer, about a week later, & saw little chewed pieces off the edge of my fabric, laying everywhere- a mouse! Now I keep my fabric in plastic bags or plastic tubs! (I did set out a mouse trap & caught no just one, but 2!) spierssusan52@gmail.com
ReplyDeletesorry about your frustration with the quilt binding, glad you got it all neat and tidy now. still have yet to make a proper quilt, but i definitely plan to try this "cheater" method first, it's toward the bottom of the page.
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@rosemaryschild Mmmm I'm not afraid of mice and have no wish to do them harm but I think I wouldn't like them near my fabric stash!
ReplyDelete@Bookwormbethie I think you'd be great at making quilts! I'm sure you can do it without cheating too.:) I have just ordered Elizabeth Hartmans Practical Guide to Patchwork. It looks wonderful (and indeed practical) Maybe you'd like to check that book out.
Oh boy, quilt binding. I've been struggling with this myself a lot lately. I'm just learning how to quilt, infact I quilted my first piece yesterday (eep!). But the binding... not so much. I've watched all the youtube videos (several times) and read at least 20 tutorials, ugh. I still can't do it right so I've broken down and signed up for a class this Saturday morning. Somethings I just can't seem to pick up from thw web... Good luck with your project, I love the colors!
ReplyDeleteUgh, unpicking not once, but twice. I can't wait to see the end result; the teaser pic shows some gorgeous fabrics.
ReplyDeleteI left a couple of boxes of costmes, including some feather masks, in our damp garage only to begin to unpack them later on and find the entire box writhing with masses of silverfish. The feathers had all been eaten to bits- nasty!
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