Wednesday, August 24, 2011

WIWOW - August 24, 2011


Hi everyone:

Can you believe that it's already August 24? Wow, where has the summer gone? While I always have high expectations of accomplishing many quilting related items - such as actually quilting, the reality is that life often intrudes and sometimes I don't get as much accomplished as I had hoped to. I did get to go on vacation, visit with friends, spend time with my children and organize my quilting studio, so I guess it wasn't such a bad summer after all!

This past week I've been shopping with my children to get new clothes and items for school. I've also been busy cleaning getting ready for a visit from my parents next week. 

In my organizing and cleaning frenzy, I've come across a few projects that weren't quite done. I made some binding strips for several quilts that needed them. They're not actually sewn onto the quilts yet, but hey, you can't do everything at once, can you?
Cute Circus Cat fabric
I also re-discovered a small quilt that I had made using a pattern in Pat Sloan's Favorite Techniques book. The pattern looked fast and easy (it was) and I thought it would be perfect  to showcase some cute fabric that I had in my stash. I quilted it using free form stars and circles, which suited the central fabric. In addition to showcasing the novelty fabric, this pattern would allow me to try a single fold, machine binding technique. The binding is stitched to the back of the quilt on each side one at a time. You then fold it over to the front and machine stitch it down. It sounded pretty straight forward and I wanted to see if this would be quicker than my usual double fold binding technique. 


Of course I also had to add a sleeve to the quilt and this took a little bit of time. 


I also thought that it would be nice to zigzag the binding down, rather than just using a straight stitch. Really, so much more interesting.


I discovered that it really takes a bit more time and effort to use a zigzag stitch for this technique.
Front side of quilt showing zigzag stitches to hold the binding down
I also realized that this technique wasn't quite as quick and easy as I had thought it would be - at least not for me. I think that the stitches were supposed to catch the binding seam on the back of the quilt - mine didn't. Perhaps if I'd chosen the straight stitch instead, that might've been better.
Back side of quilt showing how the zigzag stitches
don't overlap the binding as it should - oops!
Sorry, Pat, but I think I'll be sticking to my double-fold-stitched-on-the-front-folded-to-the-back-and-hand-sewn-down-binding technique. It might take me a bit longer, but I like the finished product better and that's really what it's all about.
Portion of the quilt all done and ready to be hung
Do you ever machine stitch your bindings down or are you a hand-sewn-binding type of quilter?

3 comments:

free indeed said...

I tried that binding technique too; I thought it would save time and be an ok alternative for non family quilts. But I found you had to be so accurate with the folding process that my stitches didn't lie where they were suppose to either. it just looked like shoddy work to me. I love sewing the binding down by hand, so I just went back to that method...so much more professional looking esp if it is for a gift for someone.

Cathy (Corbin) Keevill said...

I must admit that I can't drive my sewing machine straight enough to make this technique work. I read you post and went off to try it on a sample. It was definately a three martini binding. Not nice at all.

I think I'll stick to binding by hand. It takes a little longer, but I prefer the nice tidy look over the crazy swirving.

Chatterbox Quilts said...

I guess this method is for those perfect Quilter's who sew perfectly straight 1/4" seams all the time and I don't think that's many of us:) I'm currently hand sewing the binding on one of my quilts and enjoying this process much more.