My first 'official' quilt - ever! - with each and every learning step thoroughly enjoyed and am quite satisfied with the results. This measures @45" x 60". I am writing my notes here so I'll remember what I've done.
Quilt for Alabama,
Alabama quilt in progress and
Alabama quilt coming along brings us to the point of applying the binding. Having always loved seeing other's continuous binding all rolled up, couldn't resist taking a photo of mine. Never been happy with smaller projects I've bound, many websites were read and videos watched over and over (and over!) again for this special project, with bits and pieces taken from here and there to be used on this quilt.
From
Red Pepper Quilts Binding Tutorial I learned to cut my strips 2 1/4" wide, fold in half and zigzag the raw edges shut. This helps stabilize things somewhat when stitching the binding on, and feel it was particularly helpful to me as I do not own a walking foot. Yes, this quilt was done without a walking foot. Everywhere I turned it seemed every one was telling I HAD to have a walking foot. But sewing very slowly and taking extra precautions, like preparing the binding carefully this way, everything came together beautifully, matched corners and seams with no puckers.
At this point I switched to Wendi's technique at
Shiny Happy World How to Bind a Quilt's video to begin stitching the binding on the quilt. I liked that you begin this way, photo below, then end by simply continuing your seam. There are no binding ends to twist and match and meet-up. At this point can I say how much I appreciate Wendi's video as this was the go-to video for me here. I also found out you can move a video frame-by-frame offline on your iPad, which I did, to see exactly what some of her finer points were. I did my own thing by machine stitching the binding to the back first - then machine stitching to the front.
Photo of the top of the quilt where the binding joined.
Photo of the back of the quilt where the binding joined. See those nice stitches just shy of the binding? Thrilled!!! with the way those turned out. After stitching the binding to the back, I wrapped then pinned the binding to the front, being careful to place the pins exactly where I wanted my stitches to fall..... and it worked! Not one stitch drifted into the binding, nor strayed off crooked. I think I bit my lip and held my breath the whole time. :) I sewed this step v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y and only pinned one side at a time.
Oh, I also used Wendi's corner binding technique, also from her video, that makes a beautiful mitered corner oh-so-easy.
The label I stitched into the bottom corner says .LOVE. SOUTH CAROLINA *2013*
All folded up to check the 'trueness'. Not having dealt with so much fabric before, other than home dec - but that's a totally different type of sewing - I was happy to see all folds up nice and evenly. No crookedness..... which means (hopefully) all my measurements were correct and cut and sewn straight.
Kept the quilting simple. Top is 100% cotton, batting is Warm & Natural 100% cotton, and back is a flat twin-sized sheet 60% cotton/40% polyester.
One last look as it's already been mailed and heading to Alabama to be given to a child living in a children's home through the
Quilt Angels project led by
Gene Black - an Alabama Artist and Quilter.