Barbara’s quilt, quilting feathers and my fast and easy way of joining the binding!

The last quilted stitch!

 

Barbara’s quilt is done! Well the quilting is done and the binding attached but it has to be turned over and stitched down. Then I’ll give it a quick wash and it will be done. I think my friend Babs will be very pleased with the finished quilt. She’ll pick it up on Thursday but until then I’ll tease her with a couple of pictures!

 

I quilted feathers in the border.

 

I really like what she did with that quilt, especially the feathers.

I wonder how she did it?

I always hoped that one day I would be able to quilt feathers but doubted that it would ever happen. They looked far too technical and challenging…well beyond my skill set. Two things changed that; a book and a Craftsy class. The book is Peggy Holt’s “Crete Your Own Dream Feathers”. It provides all the information, inspiration and courage you need to get started. The second thing that changed my view of feathers is Angela Walter’s Craftsy class “Free Motion Quilting with Feathers”. These classes go on sale fairly regularly.

 

Of course you need to develop your basic machine quilting knowledge and skills. I got everything I needed from two books, Heirloom Machine Quilting by Harriet Hargrave followed by Guide to Machine Quilting by Diane Gaudynski.

 

Harriet’s book is an excellent resource that provides all the basic information. I refer to it often. Diane’s book provides information about actual designs and how-tos. One thing I learned from Diane is using the darning foot to do everything, including stitch in the ditch. Barbara’s quilt was done entirely with a darning foot.

As I was attaching the binding it occurred to me that I have developed my own way of joining the beginning and end of the binding. I’m always looking for simple ways of doing things in the moment. What I mean by this is that I don’t want to have to stop, set up new equipment, measure, cut, press and sew. My sewing room is very small so if I need a cutting surface it involves a major rearrangement of the sewing room to make space! Also I want what I’m working on done quickly and neatly. So this is how I stitch down the last bit of binding.

 

I like to stitch down the edge of the quilt with a needle and thread. I stitch about 1/8" away from the edge. Then I trim the excess batting and backing fabric away.

 

 

The first step is to pin the beginning of the binding to the quilt like this. Leave these pins in place. I start stitching the binding about 2" in from  the beginning of the binding. Stitch down the binding all around the quilt as usual.

When I’m a couple of inches away from the beginning of the binding I stop sewing; leave the needle in the down position. I trim the binding so that it extends just short of where I started stitching the binding.

I tuck the end neatly inside the fold of the beginning of the binding.

 

Make sure the binding is nice and smooth and then pin it in place.
 

 

Continue sewing the last bit to stitch down of the binding.

 

 With a thread that matches the binding I stitch the join closed.

 

View from the front of the quilt

I sew through all layers of the join starting at the edge closest to the quilt and sew out to the folded edge. Don’t cut the thread! Once the join it is stitched closed I fold the binding to the back of the quilt and I continue stitching the binding down.

 

View from the back of the quilt

 

This is what it will look like from the front of the quilt! Fast, neat and easy!

 

 

One final tip, when stitching down the binding I used my nine patch pile and ended up with one more nine patch for the stash!

 



 

Until I post again, happy sewing!