Two Quick Quilts-Kinda
I just can’t work intensely for too long or I’ll burn out. Fearful of the Big Burn Out, I grabbed a charity quilt and a quick wall hanging to break the cycle. Both are for my local guild, the Folsom Quilt and Fiber Guild. Like most guilds, we make charity quilts for various organizations and we also need quilts for our Boutique in our spring quilt show.
This is perhaps the easiest/quickest pattern on the planet so I pieced the top in a flash. But I forgot how tedious binding is-the binding took longer than the top and quilting! I know some of you have nailed machine-applied binding, but I have not, and the results are appalling in my hands. I recently read of a new technique for machine-applied bindings which I find interesting. Click on this link from Bad Ass Quilters Society and see what you think.
A generous member donated a lot of fleece to the guild and someone brilliant thought it would work well for backings. Now our quilts are just a top with some yummy, cozy fleece backing and no batting-what a great idea! I quilted very loose “headbands” and I like the effect.
I recently visited one of my favorite quilt shops, Quilters’ Corner and saw the cutest sample quilt made by Dawn Maynard from the “Vintage Baby Quilt” pattern by Yoyo Mama. At the time I did not realize it was made from a pattern. I had a packet of pre-cut charm squares that were perfect for this project so I went home and made my own version.
I love those raw edges on the charm squares! But it turned out so dog gone PINK that I had to add just the slightest bit of color. I decided to add buttons and sew them on with different colors of thread-not a huge impact, but at least it’s not ALL pink. If you decide to make this quilt, I would suggest buying the pattern. Even though it’s very simple, I had to figure out my marking and grid and apparently the pattern has a really slick way to do that.
Also, I added a border and quilted it in feathers. BUT I very lightly quilted the center of the quilt and, you guessed it, this tiny little quilt did not lay square-it pooched in the middle. Since I had already sewn the buttons on, I couldn’t easily add more quilting in between the buttons nor use my walking foot. I’ve blocked it twice and it still is a bit wonky. I think I will eventually put some fun long-stitch hand quilting in there to tighten up the middle and add more color. Only I could make a simple quilt complex, sigh….
Cheeky Cognoscenti asked me to do a tutorial on applying a hanging sleeve so I will post later this week on how I do my sleeves. If it’s not a competition quilt I like to make my sleeves out of silk organza like you see here-I like the sheerness of an organza sleeve. I probably don’t have a radically different way of doing my sleeves, but I do have opinions on things and may do it a little differently than some.
I thought I could crank out these two simple quilts in a few days, but with my learning curve, it was almost a week-how ridiculous!
I use a combination of techniques for machine binding. I like to use the glue method that Sharon Schamber uses for binding, and that keeps the binding solidly in place while I machine stitch it down. That way, I only have to deal with what I see on the top.
I forgot about Sharon’s method-I just googled her YouTube and I will have to try that-thank you for the tip Mandy! I like the idea of nailing it down with glue so that nothing moves.
Balance of quilting intensity – I see it frequently in judging. Your borders are more intensely quilted than the center field causing distortion. Really cute quilt though.
Work always expands to fill more time than you have planned – just one of those rules that you have to live with.
See you tonight!
Oh I know what I did-just can’t believe I did it! It is a real forehead slap. I think the addition of hand quilting in the center will tighten it up. I like your “rule”-yup, must be true because I’m living it!
I just finished a machine binding much like the tutorial you used, and I loved it! I have always done my bindings by machine but this is by far the best looking machine binding. I was taught that it was called “Faux Piping”. Love your blog!
Thank you Fran-good to know that you tried it and liked it. It kind of reminds me of the Ricky Tims method.
I found a good machine binding tute a while back, and used it. It’s from Back to Front Binding by Machine
By Sarah Ann Smith
Thanks for that tip Roxane-figures it would be Sarah Ann Smith! I love her work and her ideas and methods are always dead on. I’ll look it up-I have MUCH to learn in the machine binding arena!
Don’t beat yourself up over having a quilt that is not perfectly perfect – life never is but still worth living. So put this down to a moment of relaxing your brain and just doing lovely feathers around a very sweet quilt where you tried out something new. So sit down, grap a cup of tea and enjoy life in the slow lane where Things Take Time; those 3 Ts are very important in life just like the 3 Rs ;-)
Maga
Maga-wish you lived next door! Thank you for your comments-they are right on target. I’m really not a perfectionist but it does bug me to have poochy quilts. I love your 3T adage!! I will be using that from now on-great advice.
What kind of batting did you use with the minkie backing??
Wonderful posts, by the way. totally enjoy your energy!!
Thanks Jan! No batting at all-just a top and the fleece. I suppose you could use minkie too-but heavier, more expensive, harder to quilt and dang that Minkie sheds!!
Just tried following the binding tutorial and it didn’t work at all. All of the 1″ piece ended up on the back of the quilt. If I sew it to the front with the 1″ piece against the front I have an edge to stitch against but can’t see the back. I think something is wrong with this tutorial.
Looks good sewn from the front but I still have to hand stitch the back.
Thank you for your review Helen-sigh, still have to do it the old fashioned way I guess.