Binding Tutorial...or at least an attempt thereat...

For six years I chaired the regional quilt show for Q.U.I.L.T. of NWA here in Arkansas. When I took over as chair, I didn't even know how to quilt. Boy have I learned a lot in the last seven years! One of the most important things that I learned was from the quilt show judges - it seems that most of us quilters don't know how to bind quilts "properly." According to our judges, bindings should be about 1/4" on either side of the quilt and the edges should line up with each other when felt through the quilt. The binding should be full and consistent. And I found out at the last show that judges now expect both the front and the back corner miters to be sewn down. So, how are we supposed to accomplish this?

I generally get compliments from judges about my binding (except when I don't sew down the front miters!), so I'm going to show you the way I do my binding.

First, I prefer biased, French fold (also known as double fold) binding. That simply means that I cut my fabric on the diagonal and then fold it in half before sewing it onto the quilt. This same method works on straight-of-grain cuts -- just ignore the folding instructions at the beginning of this tutorial and begin at the cutting instructions.

To begin, I usually use at least a full yard of fabric since I generally make at least queen-sized quilts. You can adjust the amount of fabric for smaller quilts. Iron the fabric to remove wrinkles, then spread it face down on your cutting table. Grasp the upper left corner of the fabric and fold it down towards the right and line up the right selvage edges. This forms a point on the upper right of the fabric. See the photo below.

Then grasp the upper right side of the fabric (the point) and fold it down towards the left. See below.

This will bring the fold on the left side of the fabric down onto itself. Carefully line up this fold since this will be where you make your first cut.

Note:  In order to get my perfect 1/4" on either side of my quilt, I choose to use a 2" binding. Many of my friends use a 2 1/4", 2 3/8", or 2 1/2" binding, but I find that this is too large for the batting that I use. Since I prefer a thinner, cotton batting, I don't need a large size to wrap around.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE:  Since this first cut is made on a fold, be sure to make it half the size you need for your binding. Since I need 2" strips, my first cut is made 1". Okay, I admit that I have forgotten this rule several times when cutting binding and have wound up with a 4" initial strip. Fortunately, all I have to do to correct the error is cut the 4" strip in half lengthwise. Since this strip is often about 50" long, this is a step that I generally prefer to get right the first time! ; )

You can see the fold in the middle of my first strip. A perfect 2" wide!

Cut each subsequent strip 2". The first cut will produce one long cut. Each subsequent cut will produce TWO slightly shorter strips. Each strip you cut will be slightly shorter than the one before.

Sew the strips together using a mitered seam. You want a mitered seam to distribute the bulk along the edge of the quilt and make it easier to sew down. If you do not know how to miter a seam, leave me a comment, and I will post simple directions. Continue to sew strips together until you have the length you need. You can measure before you begin to determine how many strips you need, or you can fly by the seat of your pants like I do and sew the strips together and measure them against the quilt to determine how much you need. ; ) You need enough to go around the entire quilt plus about a foot.

After your binding strip is complete, iron the entire length in half with wrong sides together. See below. Be careful since it's easy to burn your fingers on this step.

This next photo should explain why the following photos are of a different quilt. Callie got so comfortable that I couldn't bear to make her move. Since I was in the process of binding two quilts, I just picked up the baby quilt to work on instead. Sorry for the switching back and forth! : )

Okay, I had a second quilt to work on, but I didn't have a second chair, so this time I steeled myself against hurt looks and tossed Tessie off . Sometimes these things just have to be done.

If you don't have a walking foot for binding, BUY ONE! They are expensive, but well worth the investment. This foot will "walk" your quilt smoothly as you sew on the binding and keep the fabric from bunching up or getting caught.

The next step is another one that I sometimes forget. Adjust your machine so that you don't have drag on the heavy quilt as you sew. I minimize the pressure on the foot...

adjust the needle position if needed, lengthen the stitch (from a 2.3 to 3 for my projects) and loosen the tension.

All of this will allow the quilt to move more comfortably and evenly as you sew. Make any adjustments that you feel are necessary. And don't forget to change everything back when you're finished!

I tossed in the photo below just to show you the thickness of my quilt sandwich. This thickness is easily spanned by a 2" folded binding hand stitched down to provide the requisite fullness.

Start about halfway down one side of the quilt and lay your binding so that the raw edges of the binding strip are flush with the raw edges of the quilt. Starting about one foot down the length of your binding (you will need this free section later when you join the two ends of your binding), determine your correct needle position. In order to ensure that I get an even amount on both sides of the quilt (the binding should feel full and the back portion should be just wide enough to cover the stitching), I run a short, sample stitch with no back stitching. See below.

I can then fold this short segment over to the back and check to see if it will cover the stitches. You can see that the binding is full and folds over the stitches so that they will be hidden when I hand sew the back down. If I need to make adjustments, I either adjust my needle position or adjust how I line up the quilt under the walking foot. Consistency is vital! I usualy keep the quilt moving along the same line and just adjust the needle position if I need to.

If this sample section is the wrong size - the binding folds too far over the stitches or does not completely cover them, I move my needle position and try again. When I get the setting just right, I start again with a backstitch to secure my stitches.

Sew down the length of the quilt until you get near the end of the first side. About 1/4" from the end of the first side, turn your needle into the corner and sew off of the sandwich. See below.

With your quilt removed from your machine, fold your binding up (the sewn binding is under my left hand) and line it up with the edge of the second side of the quilt. Finger press this fold. See below.

Fold the binding back down along the second side. This will form a mitered corner. You can just see the faint line that reaches from the lower left corner of the binding up to the upper right corner in the photo below. Slide this corner under your sewing machine foot and position your needle about 1/4" past the corner. Sew a few stitches then backstitch all the way off the sandwich. Release the backstitch and sew forward back onto the quilt and continue sewing along this side. Stop 1/4" from the end of this side and sew off the corner again. Repeat the mitered fold you did on the last corner. Repeat this procedure until you have sewn all four sides. Stop about 10" to 12" from your beginning seam. You should have a substantial gap between your beginning seam and your ending seam with loose ends at both the beginning and end.

Okay, my kitties switched quilts; therefore, so did I. Back to the Christmas quilt. In the next two photos, I simply want to show you what you want to avoid. I try to lay out the binding along my quilt before I begin sewing it down to ensure that I do not end up with a join at the corner. However, no matter how hard I try, I often have at least one "problem" corner per quilt. I narrowly avoided disaster with this corner. The second photo shows you just how close I came to having a corner and a joining coincide. This is not an impossible situation, but it does create a lot of bulk in the corner to deal with as you try to miter your corner on the back.

Now that you've sewn all four sides, it's time to join the two ends. Join your seams, using your favorite method.

Okay, here is where I admit that I'm a coward. Before I bound my first quilt, I was watching QNN one day and learned about The Binding Gizmo. I bought it. I love it. I have never bound a quilt without it.

This book explains, much better than I could, exactly how to bind a quilt. It covers multiple types of binding, including single fold, double fold, and scalloped. Below is a photo of the actual "gizmo."

To use this tool, you must first cut off the point on the end of your starting strip so that you have a straight edge.

Back at the cutting table, lay both ends along the quilt with the starting strip under the ending strip. Sorry, you really can't see the ends in the photo below.

There, is that better?

Here is where my instructions require you to have the tool. Sorry. I could actually measure the distance from the line on my tool to the line I mark, but I don't want to step on the copyright of The Binding Gizmo. Anyway, I place the top line of the Gizmo even with the cut end of the beginning strip. I then draw a line in the appropriate slot. Since my binding is 2" wide, I draw the line in the slot marked 2". See below. This line is drawn on the ending strip.

You can see my white line on the ending strip in the photo below (far upper right). The end of the beginning strip is in the center of the photo. To reduce bulk and make this next step easier, I fold a small section of the quilt between the two seams and place a pin in it to shorten the distance between my two strips. This make joining the strips easier.

I flatten my ending strip so that the right side is up and I can see the mark I made using the Gizmo. Opening my starting strip to expose the wrong side, I place the starting side face down to the LEFT of the mark and place a pin at the top to hold it in place.

With the top pin in place, I draw a line from the upper left corner to the lower right.

I now place a pin below the line to hold the strips steady.

Sewing ON the line, I join the strips. Sorry for the really poor lighting in this photo. Before you cut the excess binding off, test this joining to ensure that you have sewn the correct sides together with no twists. You don't want to have to take this apart and try again with shorter ends. Ask me how I know! : (

Yep, this works perfectly. Cut off the excess fabric about 1/4" to 1/2" past the seam. 

Line the joined seam up along the edge of your quilt, and sew this final section down, remembering to back stitch at the beginning and end of this seam.

Whew, the hard part's done. Now, iron around the entire quilt to set the seam.

And once around again to open the seam. This step makes it easier to wrap the binding around to the back when you are ready to hand sew it.

The one drawback with using a biased binding is that when you're done, you have a very oddly shaped piece of fabric left. In fact, you actually have TWO oddly shaped pieces. These are great to use in scrap quilts later.

I hope this makes some sense to those of you who bind your quilts differently. When I sew the back down on these quilts later this week (I hope), I'll try to remember to take some photos of the corners and show you how to miter them and sew them down in a way that will make any quilt show judge smile!


Oh, I almost forgot -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM! I LOVE YOU!
Until later,
Debbi

Back to sewing...

Aren't antibiotics wonderful? My husband and I are both finally feeling semi-well again. That means that I can get back to some serious sewing!

Mom quilted my Old-fashioned Christmas quilt for me last week, and I got the binding sewn on this weekend. Now I just need to to hand-sew it down. I took pictures of the process and would like, later this week, to post it as a tutorial. I know that most of you already know how to bind a quilt, but I also know that some of you are newer at quilting and might like to see a method that may be different from yours. If you're already familiar with my method, I'll be writing other posts later. I don't have time to post the tutorial today, but I hope to tomorrow!

Anyway, since my cats took over my sewing room again while I was working on my bindings this weekend, I took the opportunity to work a little on my owl wallhanging again.

I had reached this point on my little girl owl before I got sick.

I was able to finish off her eyes and beak last night. Okay, so her beak looks a little like she flew into a window and bent it, but oh well. The eyes may be a little light again, but I'm not changing them this time! She'll just have to have light blue eyes. : )

I picked out some fabrics last night for my next owl. I have two left to applique on. Hopefully, I'll have some more progress to report tomorrow. Until then, happy sewing, and I'll work on that tutorial tomorrow (cross my fingers that I'll have time!).

Deb

Halloween - Day of the walking dead...

Day of the walking dead. That description hits close to home right now. My husband and I have spent this entire month feeling like the walking dead. I'm still trying to overcome the bronchitis I got after the laryngitis went away, and my husband was just diagnosed with walking pneumonia. Ugh. We're both waiting for our antibiotic prescriptions to kick in. Needless to say, I've done no sewing lately.

I did, however, find enough energy last weekend to finish my Christmas quilt top. It's currently at Mom's, waiting to be quilted. Then I'll have a second project staring accusingly at me, waiting for me to bind and label it.

I was not sure how well I'd like my Christmas quilt after I got it started, but after I found the right border fabric for it (Thank you, Sager Creek!), I've decided that I really love it after all. Amazing, isn't it, how every quilt seems to go through an ugly teenage phase where we quilt parents are never sure if we've raised the poor things right and if they'll ever find someone to love them? And then they grow out of their quilt acne into beautiful, friendly, and (more importantly), lovable quilts. How relieving. ; ) Anyway, here are a couple of photos that I took as I was attempting to finish the quilt.

Below is a photo taken when I was trying to iron the completed quilt top. It doesn't look all that great when you just see the middle - you have to see the completed quilt with its borders on to lessen the busy look of the fabrics. By the way, the lump in the middle? That lump is the reason I had to stop ironing.

Tadaa! If you could see under the quilt in the photo above, this is what you would see.

No, I did not put the quilt on top of Sinbad then try to iron him. : ) I was ironing first, and he snuck under the top all on his own. I went from a nice, flat ironing surface to a bulging, moving surface. When that cat wants warmth, he wants warmth!

I don't have a photo yet of the entire quilt - I'm waiting until the quilting is done before I take a completed picture; however, here is a sneak peek at one of the corners. Now, how old-fashioned is that fabric? Isn't it wonderful? Since the 12" blocks are old-fashioned scenes on a cream background, I needed a quiet, old-fashioned border to calm the quilt down and pull everything together. Tune in later to see photos of the finished project after it's quilted. 

Hopefully, I'll be feeling better soon and can post more often again. I really need to get back to sewing! So MANY projects! In the meantime, here's my gratuitous kitty photo.

Sinbad says Boo! And have a great and safe Halloween! Meow!

Until later,

Debbi

Christmas throw progress...

I've finished the main portion of my first Christmas quilt. I've been gamely building 2-square segments into 36-square blocks all week, and I've finally finished enough for my first quilt.

As a general rule, I don't buy charm packs or other precuts. I prefer to cut my own fabrics both because I enjoy that aspect of quilting and because I'm more accurate than large factory cutters - and I value accuracy. However, I occasionally find myself in possession of precuts because of give-a-ways, gifts, or door prizes. That was the case with three 5" charm packs of old-fashioned Christmas fabrics. I decided to use these all in their own quilt. Since I didn't have quite enough, I threw in some of my more modern prints, but I tried to keep it as old-fashioned as possible.

I then pulled out this rather sweet piece of yardage and decided that it was just the right mood for the alternating 12" squares to go with my 36-patches.

Once I started sewing the blocks together, I decided that I rather liked the quilt, despite the rather busy look of it.

 



I'm trying to decide whether I need to finish the quilt off with a two or three inch border of Christmas print that I stole borrowed my mother generously agreed to donate to the cause or to finish it as it is. I may sit on the decision until I make the next quilt. The next one will be the same pattern but with more modern, flashy Christmas prints (read that as lots of sparkly silver and gold!). I figure that I've had all of these fabrics for years and have never touched any of them, so I might as well sew them all up at once in this really simple pattern.

Well, lots more cutting to do before I get the next top finished, but I'll let you see it as soon as I have some progress. I'm trying to decide whether to use one fabric for the 12" blocks or to mix fabrics. I'll have to experiment. Maybe rows of red fabrics, then green fabrics, then blue fabrics, etc.? Play time it is...

More later...

Debbi

Yet another new project - my first Chirstmas quilt!

Yes, yes, I know. Why on Earth am I starting yet another new project when I am so far behind on dozens of others? Well, we had our bi-monthly Stashbuster's meeting at Sager Creek Quilts last Thursday, and we received our new, free Stashbuster's quilt pattern. I haven't made the last few patterns (some I was too busy to start and others I just didn't like), so I decided that I needed to join in on the fun again and do another quick quilt. This month we got an extra easy quilt pattern. It is just a 36-patch alternated with a 12 1/2" square. Nothing could be easier!

Since I have tons of Christmas fabric and have never used any of it, I decided that now is the time. You can see some of the 12 1/2" squares I'm going to use with the 36 patches in progress in the following picture.

I want to show you a really neat way to make multiple square patches without having to cut each individual square itself. I learned this method from Dava (I don't remember her last name), who taught a class at my guild several years ago. I love the simplicity of it. So here goes:

If you need 2" finished squares (which this pattern calls for), you will need 2 1/2" unfinished squares to start with. Cut 5" blocks from each of your fabrics. I've started with a fat quarter below.

I've paired the 5" square from my first fabric with a 5" square of red fabric and sewn a quarter inch seam on two opposite sides.

Here is the flip side of that same 5" pairing. Again, you can see the opposing seams.

Now cut down the middle of the squares at the 2 1/2" mark. This gives you two pieces 2 1/2" x 5".

Turn the square and cut down the middle at 2 1/2" again. I've separated two of the four pieces so that you can see how this works. I actually have all four pieces cut in this photo.

Here are all four pieces separated. Now to see your pairs of sewn fabric...

Open the sewn pairings and iron towards the darker fabric. If you are making four-patches, you now have the pieces for two matching four patches. Just turn the bottom two pieces around and sew them back together with their counterparts. You will then have red/green on the top sewn to green/red on the bottom. Perfect four-patches!

Since I want a mix of fabrics for a scrappy look, I am sewing lots of five inch squares together and cutting them into two-patches. I am then sewing the two-patches together in sets of three to make 36-patches (three sets of two-patches by three sets of two-patches equals six by six, or 36 squares). Maybe it's not loads quicker, but I like this method. : )

I'll show you more photos as the blocks begin to come together. I have so much Christmas fabric, and this is such a quick quilt, that I may have to make multiple quilts! They'll be scattered everywhere!

And finally, my gratuitous kitty photo. This time I happened upon Tessie (the broken tabby) and Maxie (the tuxedo) curled up together in a very loving pose. These two have never shown much fondness for each other in the past, but as the weather is getting colder, they've decided to put aside their differences in favor of a warm cuddle partner. Oh, if it were only that easy with people...

Until later,
Debbi

Laryngitis

Who knew that losing one's voice could be accompanied by a loss of interest in talking with one's fingers as well? I was in the middle of a class lecture last Monday when my voice suddenly started to fail. I think it was caused by allergies, but I've heard that there's something going around that seems to be causing this in a lot of people. Anyway, I've been fairly silent until the last couple of days. I missed Tuesday through Friday of last week. I've rasped my way through this week so far. I'm hoping to get back to normal by next week. I think I will have to stay quiet this weekend, though, if I want that to happen.

The good news is that I managed to get a lot of sewing done while I was out. I couldn't move a lot without coughing, so I restricted myself to working on my owl quilt.

As you can see, poor Swirly Belly's left eye went on crooked, so I actually removed it and resewed it straighter. This is a photo before the repair. I haven't taken a "fixed" photo yet.

I also had to tear out the eggs from little Mama Owl's nest and redo them. They were very lumpy looking in my first attempt. This is a photo of the repaired owl. A little better anyway.

 

And following are the reasons for my allergy attack. We have been enjoying some much needed rain after this summer's drought. Unfortunately, blooming flowers bring pollen, even in the fall. Aren't they lovely, though?

We're expecting a major winter storm to hit this evening, and the temperature is supposed to drop from 81 to 49. Ugh! There go all of my lovely flowers! Our lows are supposed to hit the lower 30's, so my flowers are going to be frosted. I'll have to take in all of my indoor flowers that I still have outside.

And finally, my gratuitous kitty photo of Sinbad praying for a warm bed to sleep in when this cold weather hits. Isn't he a sweetheart? Don't worry, Sinbad. You can come cuddle with me.

Until later,

Debbi