I have had my nose glued to the sewing machine for the past several days applying bindings to 11 quilts! I must be crazy! Some of these have been quilted for 3 years, others more recently, but I decided I had to at least commit to getting the machine sewing part of the bindings completed so I can go on to the hand stitching. I don't really mind the hand part and actually prefer it to completing the binding by machine, no matter what the destination of the quilt will be. I had to replace a worn out binding once that had been completly applied by machine, and I'll tell you - it was torture to take out. A hand sewn one would have been so much easier!
HOW DO YOU WRESTLE A GIANT QUILT? PROBABLY THE SAME WAY YOU WRESTLE AN ALLIGATOR!
This quilt will be beautiful once the binding is finished and hopefully it will hang straight, however I have my doubts about that. As you can see, the setting triangles have a stripe and I wanted to make the front black binding appear as one of the stripes but I didn't want black on the back. I nearly go blind everytime I have to hand sew a black binding. I decided to make a double sided binding with the black on one side and the backing fabric on the back. The other problem that presented was that the stripe was much wider than a normal binding so I had to really tweek the measurements for the double binding. After several binding samples and trial runs, I finally got it to work.
The binding is ready to go - miles and miles of it!
Finally, it is all on - Whew!! Time for a nap! Now for the fun (grr) part - joining the ends of the binding. My favorite book on bindings, etc. is "Happy Endings" by Mimi Dietrich. When I took a binding class years ago in Connecticut, the woman who taught it had learned from Mimi. I think the book is in its 2nd or 3rd edition. Every time I do a binding I pull out a copy of that page of the book and refer to it. I learned long ago in the legal profession to not bother trying to memorize everything (laws) as things are always changing. I would always look things up so I knew I had the current information. Therefore, I haven't bothered to remember all the numbers involved with the binding.
I made a copy of the page in the book, mounted it on cardboard and just keep it handy. Just avoids mistakes - of all the things I miss I miss my mind the most! Also here is a picture of some vinyl lettering on the wall in my sewing room to remind me of the fact that another birthday just passed and I am well into the Medicare system and I can't trust my memory all the time! 
When I hand stitch my bindings, I like to lay the quilt on my large sewing machine table (love that Horn cabinet) and stitch away. No heavy quilts on my lap and I can just slide the quilt over the smooth surface and get done in record time. Makes it great for summer sewing too. I have a TV in my sewing room and when I am stitching I am facing it. I pre-load 10 needles with thread, get out all my must have binding notions and I'm ready to go. Now, I'm certainly not going to do binding on 11 quilts non-stop, but will get another project underway - wait! I have probably 11 more that needs quilting. Darn - I guess that next Kaffe Fasset project will have to be put on the back burner! Whoops - I just remembered too that I have 2 at the longarmer right now that will soon be ready for binding. Change that number to 13! Zowie, I've been busy! Oh dear, just remembered hanging sleeves for the large ones and hopefully labels for all! Getting tired!
The binding is ready to go - miles and miles of it! Finally, it is all on - Whew!! Time for a nap! Now for the fun (grr) part - joining the ends of the binding. My favorite book on bindings, etc. is "Happy Endings" by Mimi Dietrich. When I took a binding class years ago in Connecticut, the woman who taught it had learned from Mimi. I think the book is in its 2nd or 3rd edition. Every time I do a binding I pull out a copy of that page of the book and refer to it. I learned long ago in the legal profession to not bother trying to memorize everything (laws) as things are always changing. I would always look things up so I knew I had the current information. Therefore, I haven't bothered to remember all the numbers involved with the binding.
I made a copy of the page in the book, mounted it on cardboard and just keep it handy. Just avoids mistakes - of all the things I miss I miss my mind the most! Also here is a picture of some vinyl lettering on the wall in my sewing room to remind me of the fact that another birthday just passed and I am well into the Medicare system and I can't trust my memory all the time! When I hand stitch my bindings, I like to lay the quilt on my large sewing machine table (love that Horn cabinet) and stitch away. No heavy quilts on my lap and I can just slide the quilt over the smooth surface and get done in record time. Makes it great for summer sewing too. I have a TV in my sewing room and when I am stitching I am facing it. I pre-load 10 needles with thread, get out all my must have binding notions and I'm ready to go. Now, I'm certainly not going to do binding on 11 quilts non-stop, but will get another project underway - wait! I have probably 11 more that needs quilting. Darn - I guess that next Kaffe Fasset project will have to be put on the back burner! Whoops - I just remembered too that I have 2 at the longarmer right now that will soon be ready for binding. Change that number to 13! Zowie, I've been busy! Oh dear, just remembered hanging sleeves for the large ones and hopefully labels for all! Getting tired! 
1 comment:
Look at all those quilts! And I thought 4 was bad.
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