Binding

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Nothing like a deadline

May 27, 2010 in Binding, Finished Objects | 7 comments

My sister-in-law leaves for San Francisco tomorrow evening. She probably asked me to make this quilt for her soon-to-be-married friend about six months ago.  I’m almost done.

Almost done...

Quick poll, though, it needs a name! I’m trying to be good about naming my quilts this year, but am not terribly creative.  So I’d love to hear if any of you can come up with something better.  I’m not going to show a full picture until it’s finished (tomorrow!), but here’s some info for your naming task:

  • It is all Hope Valley (with coordinating solids)
  • The pattern is slightly-wonky bricks, inspired by this quilt.
  • I did a large pebbling design for the quilting.
  • It is a gift for a couple about to be married (this weekend!).  They:
    • are both doctors (residents)
    • have recently relocated from Boston to San Francisco

So… any good names jump out at you?  Gotta make the label tonight so it can go in the wash before delivering it tomorrow! Yikes!

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Two new loves

September 21, 2009 in Binding, Finished Objects, Quilting | 10 comments

I mentioned last week that I would have another finished quilt to show off with nearly identical fabrics. Two different people asked me to make baby boy quilts in blues and browns, and I’m all about efficiency, right? This second one was a custom order from my husband’s aunt, who I knew we’d be seeing in Florida this weekend, so it was the perfect time to finish it.

Brown & Blue Zig Zag - Front

I think I liked the no-triangle zig-zag pattern even better the second time around. For some reason, it didn’t feel like it took as long as the first time, and I would definitely make it again at some point. I did make it a hair smaller, starting with 2.75″ strips instead of 3″, only because it made fitting the backing and binding a little easier (the last time, I just barely had enough with a crib-sized batting). The finished size pre-washing was about 42×52″. The solid blue on the front is Kona Cotton in either Sky or Cloud (again, not that I would be smart enough to write such things down).  The solid brown on the back is Kona Cotton in Espresso (that one I’m pretty sure of) with a strip of little squares of the prints from the front..

Brown & Blue Zig Zag - Back

I fell in love with two new things in the making of this quilt.  The first is basting spray.  Thank you so much to the people who suggested it when I was having such trouble with my walking foot.  It was nothing short of awesome. The process wasn’t too hard, and I added a few pins just for my own peace of mind.  There was dramatically less distorting. Arguably this was a more forgiving style of straight-line quilting, in that there were no crossed/overlapping lines, I still think it was a major improvement and will definitely use it again. And I was really happy with the way the blue quilting lines showed up on the dark brown backing.

Brown & Blue Zig Zag - Binding

The second new love was one of necessity. As I was packing everything up to take to Florida to finish, I could not for the life of me find brown thread. As anyone with toddlers can attest, things tend to go missing. So I grabbed some cream-colored thread and threw it in the bag, and figured it was time to make the switch to ladder stitch for my binding. Holy crap. I was doing little tiny stitches before that were hard to see, but I was a little worried at how well they’d hold things down, and they were still, technically, visible.  This thing is no-joke invisible! I mean you have to really look closely and start pulling at things to see the stitches.  And I didn’t find that it took all that much longer than what I was doing before, so another win.

Brown & Blue Zig Zag - Folded

Sewing has to go on the back burner this week as I need to use the precious naptime to frantically price and tag three huge bins full of clothes and other stuff for my Moms of Twins Club’s semi-annual tag sale.  But as soon as I finish, I’ll jump right back in!

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Finishing Frenzy

September 4, 2009 in Binding | 1 comment

I don’t know about anyone else, but different pieces of the quilting puzzle go in fits and starts for me.  Sometimes I do a little bit at a time of three or more projects.  A little here, a little there.  I suppose that’s usually when I’m in the piecing stage.  But then sometimes I get completely fixated on finishing.  And I can hardly even look at or touch any other projects until these are finished.

That’s where I am right now.  I have three (small) quilts that are all quilted and bindings attached to the front.  So my machine is sitting idle while I watch Project Runway on the DVR and hand-sew that binding as fast as I can.  One down, one halfway there, and one waiting in the wings.

I can’t wait to finish so that I can show them off, ship them to their new homes, and start on something new!

Vacation Finish #3

August 14, 2009 in Binding, Finished Objects | 6 comments

The final quilt I finished on vacation was a little something I made for this perfect little guy, not quite three weeks old when I met him on Wednesday.

Theo

Theo is the second son of one of my very good friends from college. I didn’t originally have big plans for a quilt for him, but when my friend mentioned a month or two ago that his nursery was done in a sock monkey theme… you know I just couldn’t resist.

Sock Monkey gift, finished

It came together ridiculously fast, especially since I found the fabric from an Etsy seller who was selling a bundle of 5″ squares, eight each of five prints.  Got a bit of extra yardage that became borders, backing and binding, and threw in that orange border from my stash, and it was a cute little thing. I didn’t measure it, but I suspect that it’s maybe a bit under 36″ square after washing.  I quilted it just with a random stipple in cream-colored thread.

Sock Monkey gift, finished

As much as I dig pieced backings, sometimes it’s nice to make something small enough that you can just use a single cut of fabric. And that numbers print was just perfect.

Sock Monkey gift, finished

And you know I can’t resist a dotty binding. :-)   So much cute, and I think my friend really liked it.  Hooray!

We’re finally back home after our two-week-long Midwest adventure, and I’m so glad to be here. Itching to get a lot of sewing done, but there also seems to be a million things to do around the house, so I’m going to try to find a balance and not totally neglect the rest of my house in the name of fabric. We’ll see how that goes!

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Vacation Finish #2

August 11, 2009 in Binding, Finished Objects, Quilt-Along | 10 comments

My second vacation finish is a lap-sized version of AmandaJean’s nine-patch quilt-along.  And I am in love with it!

Nine Patch in use

I mentioned before that I elected to stop at 35 blocks instead of 70. One of the reasons I made that decision was that I didn’t think I would like the way it was turning out. The blocks were so random, it just felt messy.  I’m happy to report that I think I was wrong on the messiness question.  I’m still glad I went with a smaller quilt, but I really, really love how it turned out.

Nine Patch - Done!

I quilted it just inside each 2.5″ seam, which adds up to 116 straight lines.  Damn, that was  tedious. I was annoyed at the pulling and puckering, but the sum total looks pretty good. Especially, ahem, from a little bit of a distance.

Nine Patch Back

The backing is Kona Cotton in Ash, plus some light blue solid that I found at Joann’s.  The white is a bleached muslin from Joann’s.  And I love my three more nine-patches on the back.

Nine Patch - Folded

The binding is Amy Butler’s Full Moon in Slate.  Love love love it, and I’m sad at how hard it is to find more. As a relatively new fabric addict, I’m finding it hard not to freak out and start hoarding fabric that’s going out of print. I wish there was a never-ending supply!

One more vacation finish to report… and hopefully I’ll get a picture when I deliver it to its tiny recipient tomorrow afternoon.

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Vacation Finish #1

August 10, 2009 in Binding, Finished Objects | 5 comments

I brought three quilts on vacation with me so I could finish the binding while I was away from my machine.  Naturally, they were all done before the first week was over, so I’ve been twiddling my thumbs ever since!  Good thing I didn’t have internet access for much of the last week, or I probably would have gone on a fabric shopping spree in my withdrawal from all things sewing.

The first of the three finishes was a custom order from a blog friend.  She wanted a pink and brown ragged square quilt for her daughter’s move to a big-girl bed.

Pink & Brown Ragged Square

It was quite a variety of fabrics, but I think it turned out pretty well. I added a solid pink border (Kona Cotton in Carnation) because it needed a few more inches in order to drape well over a mattress.

Ragged Square - Back

The back is solid brown (I believe it was Kona Cotton in Mocha) and a lighter solid pink that I found at Joann’s, with a little stripe of one of the prints from the front, which I believe is from the Moda Sultry line.

Ragged Square - Folded

The binding is more of that Moda Sultry print. Not only did I love it, but Fabric.com sent me a full two yards of it when I only ordered a half, so I had plenty!

I had some stern words for this thing when I was quilting it, but it all worked out in the end and it sounds like recipient was darn pleased with it, so that’s all that matters!

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Performance Anxiety

July 16, 2009 in Binding, Piecing, Quilt-Along | 5 comments

Because I’m a glutton for punishment and having five projects on my to-do list, I decided to add two three more. Gah!  As it is, I finally have all of the fabrics I needed for Mary‘s daughter’s quilt, and have started putting the blocks together. Mary, hope you like the little preview!

DSC_0051

As for new stuff, I couldn’t resist joining the next project that has grown out of the Old Red Barn Co quilt-along: zig-zags! I’ve done a zig-zag before, of course (the baby for whom it was destined arrived yesterday, welcome to the world, Marcella!). And I have another one on my to-do list (a “commissioned” quilt for my husband’s aunt). But the ORBCo version will actually be done with half-square triangles. Plus, I’ve got a fat quarter bundle of Neptune just begging to be used.  I think I’m going to do two small (40″ square) quilts, one a little more girly and one a little more boyish.  Yes, I have boy/girl twins and a thing for fairness and symmetry, why do you ask?  Thankfully, though, these have no particular deadline, so they can get bumped down in the priority list if they need to be.

DSC_0048

And finally, I’ve joined my very first swap!  I’m doing the DQS7, and I’m both excited and totally nervous. What if the person I get is actually a REALLY good quilter and I send my lame beginner stuff and they’re really disappointed?  Gah!  But I’m looking forward to having an excuse to try something new and send it to someone who will hopefully enjoy it.  We’ll get our “assignments” next week, so I look forward to trying to figure out what my partner likes and figuring out what swaps are all about.

In the meantime, I’ve got two nearly-finished items on the pile for the trip to Chicago.  Binding attached, all it needs is the hand-sewing on the back.  It’s the nine-patch quilt and a cute little sock monkey baby quilt for my friend’s second son, due to arrive in the next week or two.

DSC_0054

I’ve got (theoretically) 12 more sewing days until we leave… we’ll see how much more can get added to that pile! I’m hoping for at least one more, but who knows what life will throw my way in the meantime.

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My first finished quilt-along

July 12, 2009 in Binding, Finished Objects, Quilt-Along | 9 comments

It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you aren’t in your own house.

At home, when the kids are sleeping, there’s a million things to do (laundry, dishes, etc.) and a million things to just plain distract me (computer, DVR, other sewing projects).  But when you’re at your in-laws’ house and the kids are passed out and your in-laws are the fairly sedate type?  You can just hand-sew that binding like it’s your job.  And that’s what I did.

A bit of binding

And barely more than 24 hours later, I had this:

ORBCo Quilt - Finished!

That’s right, the ORBCo quilt is finished!  I’m really happy with it.  The fabrics are crazy and groovy and bright and happy. I credit a fellow quilt-along-er for inspiration on the added border, which I like a lot, in part because it makes it easy to find the top/bottom of the quilt. The swirly pink quilting is really subtle on the front, and really just adds some texture without taking away from the pattern itself.  It’s delightfully soft and crinkly after a nice run through the washer and dryer.

ORBCo Finished - back

I am super, super happy with the back.  With such a loud front, I’m glad I went with a cool, simple back.  The pink thread shows up quite a bit on the dark gray backing (Kona Cotton in Coal), and the slightly-off-center strip (leftover squares from the original strip sets on either side of a few inches of the Wallflower print) pops out really nicely.

ORBCo Finished, folded

The binding is more of the pink/gray Wallflower print with some extra solid gray.  I had around a half yard left over of each after making the front borders and the backing, and I really didn’t want to have to buy any more fabric for the binding.  I needed about nine strips for it, and got seven out of the Wallflower, so just threw in some gray here and there.  I think it works.

ORBCo Finished

I’m not sure what the post-washing dimensions are, but pre-washing it was about 71″ x 91″.  A very generous twin and the largest quilt I have ever made.  I have to say I am really proud of it.

The quilt-along itself was a lot of fun.  The week-by-week instructions were good for new folks, and the Flickr group was a ton of fun to see what other people were doing and exchange stories and advice and compliments and encouragement. In fact, everyone had such a great time that they’re starting another quilt-along: a zig-zag!  I’m sorely tempted, but I think I really need to stick to the rest of the items on my to-do list at the moment.  So many quilts, so little time…

At any rate, I’m thrilled that it’s done. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it, now, especially seeing that there are no twin-sized beds in my house. But that’s really a very minor concern, don’t you think?

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