Bring on Summer

There is a dark hallway upstairs in my home where I alternate a couple of quilts for a little spark of color. And recently I made the switch for the summer to this little number. Just in time too. It was in the mid- to upper-80's all week! A little over the top if you ask me. (Luckily, this week temps are down to a comfortable range again.)

I'm not entirely sure when I made it. It's from this magazine from March 2008,

which I think I bought in preparation to make a quilt with photos printed on fabric, so I probably made it that summer. In the magazine, there are a lot of great patterns for memory quilts (well, duh, it says that right on the cover). I did use the tips in it to make a memory quilt, but I also liked this pattern by Shelly Burge.

In fact, I liked it so much I tried to pretty much duplicate everything, including the fabrics. It's a nice combination of paper foundation piecing and large scale piecing. I was particularly taken with the gradations in the background. 

After years of hanging the quilt from a sleeve (messily) sewn on the back, I decided to add the (messily attached) tabs that continued the gradations of the sky. (I actually had just enough of the right scraps in my bins to do that.) I'll show you the back if you promise not to judge my sleeve- and tab-making more than I already have. 

It looks dirty, but that's just from a yellowish light nearby.

This is the pattern where I learned how to do a faced binding. I really enjoyed that and think it's time I do another one of those. 

The quilt measures 28 1/4 inches long (31 3/4, if you include the tabs) by about 31 1/2 inches wide. It's hand quilted with a polyester batting. 

I liked making this quilt so much that I immediately (if not simultaneously) made another quilt just like it for my daughter's office. I'm a little less enamored of it now, but it is fun to hang for the summer. My daughter's also tired of hers, so I've been making her another quilt to replace it. The project is a little stalled out right now. Got to do something about that.

Before I go, here's a little close up:

Whew! This must be the shortest TBT post I've ever written. Oh, well, I've got lots of other things to attend to which I'll share in due time. I'm linking up today with Jenn at A Quarter Inch from the Edge for Throwback Thursday. Go there and see the other oldies but goodies. And have a great weekend quilting in your little neighborhood!

Binding Variation

Last week when I shared my completed quilt extension project, I mentioned that I used a new-to-me machine technique on the binding. I made a little sample to share this week to show how I did that. It's not an earthshaking new way, but is a little variation on how machine binding is often done.

I usually attach the binding to the back first and then flip it to the front, covering the original seam line where I sewed it to the back, and then I topstitch on the front, hoping that the stitching will be next to the binding on the back. There are two problems with that. I tend to cut off points of blocks if there are any near the edge on the front, and my stitching is usually wonky on the back, sometimes on the binding and sometimes off. This time, I started wondering why it is important to me to not have the stitching show on the binding on the back when it is obviously showing as topstitching on the front. So I made a little change.

In the following pictures, the front fabric is gray, the backing is black, and the binding is white. I'm using red thread so you can see it. Ordinarily I'd use a thread that matches the back for the first seam (attaching the binding to the quilt) and a thread that matches the binding for the remainder of the work.

This is what I did: On the quilt I just made, I wanted the binding to be about 5/8 inch wide, so I cut my binding 3 1/4 inches wide and pressed it in half. I trimmed my batting and backing so it extended 3/8 inch from the edge of the top. 

I stitched the binding on the FRONT of the quilt the usual way using thread that matched the back. (It's red here so you can see it.)

Here's how it looked on the back. (Red here, but it would be black to blend in with the back.)

I pressed the binding toward the edge of the quilt. Important step!!

Then I flipped the binding to the back, just up to the original stitching line, not over it. I'm showing this extra large so you can see the line. I pressed with my iron. Again, very important to the success of this method. Then I put clips about every 2 1/2 inches to hold it in place.

Finally, I topstitched a scant 1/8 inch away from the seam line on the FRONT of the quilt. Here's how it looked on the front...

...and on the back.

If this was an actual quilt, I would likely have used thread to match the binding for this part. 

So there you have it. The binding has stitching on both the front and the back, and the original stitching line shows up on the back as if it's in the ditch. If you use thread that matches the backing for the original seam you won't see it. 

I like this method because I can be careful about stitching that first seam to keep from cutting points off on the front and I don't have to worry about wonky stitching on the back. I also like the idea of having the binding look the same on the front and the back. I haven't tried this yet with narrower binding, but it seems like it would work fine. Pressing is key, though, I'm sure. 

I'm linking up this post with Late Night Quilter for Tips and Tutorials Tuesdays. (Yeah, I know it's Wednesday, but I did start writing this last night.) 

Binding Project

This week, I'm learning how to bind inside angles and 90+degree outside angles. It's taking awhile, but it's going pretty well. I looked at a lot of different tutorials and thought about doing the whole thing by machine, but in the end I decided to stitch it on the front by machine and do hand sewing on the back. That way I could fiddle with the miters. They're not perfect, but I'm pleased with how they're turning out. I'm glad I could do this with crossgrain binding. Bias binding and I don't get along. 

I'm hoping for a Friday Finish and nice enough weather to get some photos of the quilt outside.

I'm linking up today with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday, Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social, and Freemotion By the River for Linky Tuesday.