delay of binding

So, I really hate making binding. I actually hate almost every part of binding that I do by machine (which might explain why I haven’t touched this project in more than a week). Sewing it onto the back is soothing, and can be done while drinking a beer and catching up with TiVo.

So, with that goal in sight (and more important things to procrastinate), I sucked it up and made some binding. (That pop of aqua you see is my homage to Elizabeth Hartman.) I did come across one issue when I went to sew it on:

At some point, it seems I accidentally snipped into the quilt top about an inch. I had hoped to secure it with the quilting, but that obviously wouldn’t cut it. Since I wasn’t in the mood for anything fancy, I did some quick hand-stitching surgery to patch it:

Barely noticeable, right? These stitches only go through the top layer and the batting, so they don’t show from the back. Speaking of the back, Jeannette commented on my last post about this quilt asked an excellent question:

I’ve long marveled at quilters who can accomplish this in their regular basting process. I am not one of those quilters. I decided to hand baste along the row that I wanted to sync up with the row on the back. This allowed me to be extra sure that each point matched up front to back.

After I hand basted, I smoothed the quilt sandwich out on the floor and worked outward from that row with curved basting pins. At right, you can see where I basted with pink thread. (Click the image to view it larger.)

 

Oddly, after attaching the binding, pressing it and clipping it, I decided I was more in the mood to cut and piece than I was to sew by hand (that’s more of a nighttime activity, right?), so I set upon making a tiny version of this already slightly small quilt (the “big” one only measures 28″x42″).

This smaller version will measure about 7″x10½”. I’m going to use insulated batting in hopes of it becoming a mug rug or pot holder or what have you. Each print exactly matches its placement in the “big” version.