Archive of ‘Quilts’ category
It’s Thursday and it’s time to linky up your quilty process here at Pretty Bobbins! Sometimes I think too much, I always have. In fact one of my favourite things to do is quilt and think (I’m not one to watch TV and piece, I prefer the company of my own thoughts). This week I’ve been thinking a lot about being a professional quilter and blogger and what that means. But first up I want to feature the incredibly talented Jess of The Elven Garden.
Image used with permission from The Elven Garden
I remember first coming across Jess and being so incredibly impressed with her quilting. Seriously amazing stuff! She is now teaching and has been published in magazines and is generally a bit of a quilting superstar in my books 
I’m looking forward to meeting Jess in real life and sharing a room at QuiltCon next year!!
Image used with permission from The Elven Garden – saw this in person, it’s AMAZING!!
Yesterday Jess wrote a post about thinking and quilting. Now I’ll admit that I quilt and think, the two go hand in hand for me. Jess talked about how some of us are mindful quilters and some aren’t and how she’s realised that she is totally happy “just” making pretty things and being happy <3 Jess, I’ll be happy if you keep making pretty things! The world needs more quilt candy, be it mindfully made or thrown together with purpose rather than deep thought involved 
Image used with permission from The Elven Garden
Seriously, this kind of talent kills me! ABSOLUTELY stunning! If you haven’t already, please head over to The Elven Garden and say hi to Jess. Her work is all things wonderful <3
Quilting with my Miss
The only quilting I’ve been up to lately is a super simple quilt for Francois, my daughter’s class mascot. The children in her class laid out the charm squares and we made the quilt together at home. We added photographs to the Francois’ scrapbook and I have hung a few copies in my sewing room <3
Triangle quilt in progress
As usual I have been thinking a lot about my business and I’ve decided to aim to have a market stall. We all know that pricing is arguably the hardest part of quilting and I very much believe that we should charge what we’re worth. I have a super hard time following through with this and generally tend to sell myself short. I have decided that everything I make for market will be properly priced. I’ve been timing myself as I’m working and you may be interested to hear my progress.
Cutting: 50 minutes
Layout: 40 minutes
Piecing: 205 minutes
That’s almost 5 hours of work before basting, quilting and binding and this is only a cot sized quilt. Of course I will probably chicken out and charge far less than the finished quilt is actually worth, but at least by figuring out an accurate cost based on time, materials and skill I can educate myself. In this same vein I urge you to visit this post by Mandalei Quilts on working for free. It is definitely food for thought and fits with my own experience of realising that as much as I love to accept free fabric, the work that I put into my work is worth far more than the say $50 worth of free fabric. As a business I just don’t think I can afford to work for free anymore. I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts on this one
So that’s my thinky quilty Thursday Please link up your quilty process below <3
An InLinkz Link-up
It’s Thursday, yay! It’s almost the weekend 
I hope you’ve got your quilt on and you’re ready to link up to this week’s I Quilt party. This week I’m talking about how I quilt online. But before I get started I want to feature the amazingly talented Christa of Christa Quilts!
“Spiraling Out of Control” image used with permission by Christa Quilts
Christa has her own fabric shop so I’m terribly jealous from the outset She is also a talented and successful quilter and her blog is the place to go if you’re seeking inspiration, insights and how-tos. I’m sure you all know Christa, but if you don’t, please pop over and check out her work and say hi!
“Modern X” image used with permission by Christa Quilts
Last week Christa shared some binding tips (and y’all know how much I love that part of the process!). I love Christa’s modern Christmas trees series, you can find the main post here, but definitely check out the posts on the quilting, it’s super impressive!!
“Modern Trees“, image used with permission by Christa Quilts
I love the crisp, sharp lines that she tends to favour and I adore her quilting, especially as she is a real sharer of process, something that this linky party is ALL about!
This week I wanted to talk about being an online quilter. You may be aware of the Blogger’s Quilt Festival run by Amy of Amy’s Creative Side. If you haven’t participated before or you’re nervous about being “good enough” I strongly encourage you to throw caution to the wind and just jump in! I’ve found some of my favourite bloggers through the festival (I’m looking at you Susan of Canadian Abroad) and aside from anything else, it is such a visual feast!
You’d be surprised to hear that I don’t spend as much time online as I used to but I still LOVE all the fun, creative blogger things happening out there. This week I came across “me made May” on Instagram (check out #mmm14 and #memademay) which is all about wearing clothing in May that you’ve made yourself. Inspired to join in and make myself a fabulous outfit (I firmly believe that if you feel good in what you’re wearing and love how you look, you can conquer the world) I got busy last night and stitched up a tova tunic. I’ll post about it later in the week, but you can see a sneak peek
Pink and yellow giraffes! Love my new tova tunic!
Some of my other favourite online quilting activities are Work in Progress Wednesday, Fresh Sewing Day and TGIFF. Please, please, please add your favourite online quilty/creative/stitchy link ups/activities below. If a hashtag inspired me to sew a fabulous dress then I think we need to share more of them!
Now let’s get linky! Share your quilting process and don’t forget to visit three other linkers, we all love comments!!
An InLinkz Link-up
It’s Thursday, yay! That means I get to quilt all day tomorrow and read your linkys <3 Firstly, thank you so much for all your comments last week!! You’ve really made me think about what it is that I want, how we’re all going through a similar journey and how much I have to be grateful for. Thank you!! Following on from the theme of last week; (re)defining success, I want to talk about pride. A few times recently I have almost said, “I’m a quilter” but have ended up saying something like, “I’m a textile artist/designer”. Today I’m going to shout it out; I’m proud to be a quilter! Don’t forget to link up your quilt process and feel free to share your thoughts about being a quilter. Quilters rock!
This week I’m featuring the hugely talented Midge of Ms Midge. Midge and I have never met but are very close online friends. I’m not sure how that all started, but it did and now we chat online most days and help each other out, sharing advice and lending an ear when needed. Midge has been quilting for 2.5 years (and is super organised and has all of her quilts in two pages on her blog 2013 and 2014) and holy heck, she is good! With four kids, a successful handmade business and a job outside the home, I don’t know where she finds the time to quilt! I suspect she has a clone or robot or something, because the rate at which she pumps out her amazing projects is truly astounding!!
Image used with permission from Ms Midge
Ages ago Midge wrote a thinky post (she’s good at them, you should follow her blog) and among other things she wrote that I was the first person to call her a quilter. I’m pretty sure that was around the time that I also called her crazy for taking on a quarter square triangle quilt as (I think) her second ever quilt The point is, I was so touched and so proud that my encouragement meant so much to her. She is awesome, she doesn’t need me to tell her that, and yet I’m compelled to do so. We NEED to encourage each other, it feels good to make others feel good and we can take pride in being not only awesome quilters, but a community that encourages, shares and connects at a meaningful level.
Image used with permission from Ms Midge
In keeping with the theme I asked Midge to share three quilts that she is most proud of. She selected the above two and the following quilt. Midge is most proud of her triangle quilt below because the quilting looks perfect from the back. Only a quilter would get that, the pleasure at not only having a beautiful quilt from the front, but knowing that you’ve done a damn good job and the back is worthy of being put on show. You should be proud Midge, all three quilts are beautiful and a testament to your drive, determination, skill and good taste!!
Image used with permission from Ms Midge
I don’t know if I can choose one quilt that I am most proud of. I guess it was probably mean of me to ask Midge to select only three! Every quilt is special, a learning experience, a meaningful gift, a profitable sale. There is pride to be found in each quilt and we should be proud of what we do.
My son’s Rainbow I Spy quilt is probably one that I can pick out as being super proud of. It’s not my favourite quilt of all time (although I’m pretty sure it was at the time), but I was/am proud of myself for working out the layout. It is pieced and was made by fussy cutting every novelty print I had in my stash at that time, placing them in a rainbow gradient and then working out how to piece them. I learnt a heap from that project and gained a lot of confidence. Plus my son loves it and sleeps under it every night <3
So next time I find myself talking to someone outside the quiltosphere about my passion I’m going to tell them that I’m a quilter and not feel the need to hide behind a cool title, explain that it really is for awesome peeps or talk it down as just a hobby. Maybe I’ll get it printed on a t-shirt….
Now it’s time to link up your quilty process <3 Big love to all the quilters out there xxx
An InLinkz Link-up
If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen a few photos on the weekend of the Modern Quilt Show in Berry, New South Wales (check out #modernquiltshowau) It was an amazing day out!! Prepare yourself for gushiness
My quilt, “Hues of the South Pacific” hanging at the Modern Quilt Show in Berry.
This is only the second time I have had my work on display and was the first time that this show had run. It was AMAZING to see so many beautiful, modern quilts all together in one place. The place was buzzing, or at least I was (car sickness induced!) and I nearly peed my pants when I turned around and nearly ran into MolliSparkles (who won best in show) and the lovely Mr Sparkles.
Me and Molli
Penny Poppleton snuck around the corner a moment later and there I found myself with a bunch of amazing modern, Aussie quilters. Seriously, check out my hysterical grin, I was on cloud nine! Meeting Penny was surreal, finally she is a three dimensional person in my memory, rather than an online friend that I think I connect well with. I really wish we had days together rather than minutes, I look forward to meeting again, I’m keen to check out her frame and talk more about it and all things quilty!
L-R: MolliSparkles, Penny Poppleton, Procrasticraft, Me and Scrappy Quilts.
I was lucky enough to travel down to the show with a group of awesome Canberra quilters and spend the day with them. Our youngest road tripper won Best in Show in the Children’s category which was fantastic and possible made up for the constant talking from the old ladies in the car. (I did tell her that all quilters talk that much, not just us!)
Canberra Modern Quilters hit the road!
Berry itself is a lovely town, but I didn’t get any pics of that! I can share with you some gorgeous fabric I bought though… I had a ball chatting to the lovely Kate of Kate Quilts, her fabric selection was divine and had Molli and I completely distracted from a very meaningful conversation. I’m not sure what happened but we went from, “must pursue happiness, quilting and greater meaning in life” to complete silence for at least five minutes whilst we put together our bundles. I’m thinking of making a triangle quilt with mine <3
From Kate Quilts
I also met the lovely Kim of Simpson and Scarlett (her website is under construction but she has a FB page here) who had a great selection of fabric and totally tempted me with her bundles of Modern Domestic. She saw me coming and offered to break her bundle which was very kind and I ended up with these pretties. I went for fat eights as I have lots of pinks, but seriously, her stall was wonderful!
From Simpson and Scarlett
The very funky and talented Kathy of Material Obsession gave away a number of her books as lucky door prizes and this little red hen scored some candy! To be honest I don’t buy quilting books anymore, I’m on too tight a budget and I don’t make quilts to a pattern, so it was WONDERFUL to be given a beautiful quilt book. I would love to paw over her earlier books and encourage you to check them out if you have a chance, she has a great eye for design and colour. She also has great hair! (One notices these things when one is desperate for a haircut…)
I’m so glad that I made it to the Modern Quilt Show and met so many inspiring people and kindred spirits! It has left me really excited about QuiltCon (yes, I’ll be there! I’ve booked my flights) and looking forward to the second Australian Modern Quilt Show.
In a few weeks I will be teaching the first of a few quilt classes featuring my pattern, Starry Skies, at HobbySew Beclonnen. It’s a fun quilt that is originally lap sized but can easily be enlarged. Read on for details and quilt candy <3
April was such a whirlwind of activity that I haven’t had a chance to blog about all the quilts I finished! Today I’d like to share Starry Skies (#2) with you (and subtly mention an upcoming class that I’m teaching ). I also want to apologise that I didn’t post I Quilt last week, I spent Thursday night in ER with my son (he is OK, just a little glue holding his scalp together!)
I first made this quilt a year or so ago in a very different palette for a Kate Spain blog hop. I love the pink with the grey, but this time I wanted higher contrast.
Starry Skies #1
This quilt is great for imaginative quilting! You can really go anywhere. FIrst time around I mixed in some hand quilting and kind of did a shooting stars theme. This time I went for movement again, but more swirls and bubbles. It’s also a great one for using up scraps and gaining confidence with improv techniques. I’m going to talk a lot about colour play in the class as I feel this is an area where we can all always learn more
The texture is really quite fabulous (if I do say so myself…)
As pretty as this quilt looks in our house it is on display at HobbySew Belconnen tempting quilters to sign up to a one day workshop with me on the 24th of May. I’d love you to come along and spend the day piecing with me! You can call the lovely ladies at HobbySew on and book in It’s $60 for the day and you get cutting instructions to take home and get busy in advance of the class so we get the most out of the day.
If you’d like to find out about other upcoming classes you can see them here.
Welcome to I Quilt at Pretty Bobbins! The last week has been a flurry of activity in the studio as I finished off a heap of quilts and have been getting ready to submit them to a quilt show Entry is due by tomorrow, but if you’re interested you can check it out here.
First up I finished binding “Dream in Colour”. You may remember it from way back last year… On second thought I may not have shared it before… It is pieced using scraps from a beautiful plus quilt (still haven’t finished that one…) and is meant to hang in my studio to remind me to take my vivid, colourful dreams and make them real and tangible.
Made with scraps and quilted with dense, wonky, SLQ
Then I bound my improv, self-reflective, arty-farty piece. I wrote about this quilt a few weeks back, it breaks all of the “rules” and I will be interested to hear feedback from the judges and people who visit the show.
Not the best photo I’m afraid..
I’m also entering the quilt that doesn’t have a name that I recently had in a local show. It mixes hand quilting, longarm quilting, improv piecing, needle-turn applique and goodness knows what else!
I’ve filled out entry forms for a couple of minis but then I remembered the Blessings Quilt and my lovely friend agreed that she was happy for me to enter it.
All in all I’ve entered seven quilts and I’ll be stitching on a heap of hanging sleeves if they’re all accepted! Which is a nice segway to my topic of this week; hanging sleeves. Do you have a favorite hanging sleeve method or tutorial? I used the directions from the Canberra Quilter’s recently, but I know many shows provide specific dimensions. If I am making a small wall quilt for my house, I generally just do a pocket in each corner and hang it with a piece of dowel. This method has the added bonus of avoiding handstitching
Next time I attach a hanging sleeve I am going to go with a D shape, similar to this tutorial by Tallgrass Prairie Studio.
I haven’t featured a quilter this week as I haven’t had the time to seek permission and my Dad arrived today and I really need to get out of the studio and spend some time with him Please add your link below and don’t forget to add the linky button or a link to my blog in your post or side bar. To those of you celebrating, have a lovely Easter and to those of you who aren’t, have a great weekend xx
An InLinkz Link-up
Welcome to Pretty Bobbins! Today is my day in Jennifer Sampou’s blog hop for her new line Shimmer. I am super excited to be involved and I have a lovely fabric giveaway for you <3
I was so excited when Jennifer first contacted me to be part of the Shimmer party, and had a lot of trouble deciding which prints to use, they’re all gorgeous! The sparkle of these prints is just fantastic and I really love the wavy line prints, very dynamic and ones I know that I’ll be using again and again.
We’re heading into winter here in Australia and I couldn’t resist making a sparkly, modern lap quilt to snuggle up under and reminisce about summer time. We have beautiful, clear skies in Autumn here in Canberra and photographing this quilt by the lake was a lot of fun. I love how the piecing looks like part of the skyline, totally coincidental but I’ll happily claim good design
I was inspired by Jennifer’s cushions (check out her lookbook!!) and backed it in a super soft, cream minky and it’s super soft and cuddly.
I really wanted to come up with a design that was modern and featured Jennifer’s gorgeous prints. The improv curves with set in contrasting blocks nicely highlight how well this line plays together. I must say, as a longarm quilter some metallic prints are very troublesome to work with, Jennifer’s line quilted BEAUTIFULLY without a tension issue anywhere in sight! If you want metallic highlights and lots of shimmer AND you love to quilt, then Shimmer is a must! As always I used my favourite thread, Aurifil 50wt in 2000, 2600 and 5004.
This lap quilt measures 38″ x 62″ and was made for cuddling <3
I still haven’t decided which way is up and which was is down (is it stormy seas or dark skies over snow?) but I love the subtle prints and tones.
I had a heap of fun finding all the background shimmer that I could. I can’t lie, this quilt was fun from beginning to end
So now that you’re dying to get your hands on some Shimmer I can happily tell you that there is lots on offer! It will be hitting stores soon, but in the meantime you can win some right here at Pretty Bobbins and at each of the other stops on the blog hop (schedule below)!!
All you have to do is leave me a comment on this post before 18 April (I’m sticking to a US timezone for this giveaway) and a charm pack of Shimmer could be heading your way! I will use a random number generator to pick a winner, but if you like you can let me know what your favourite charm square project is
Bon chance!
And if a charm pack isn’t enough Shimmer for you, you can head over to Jennifer’s blog for a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of the entire Shimmer line!! To enter the giveaway, new readers should sign up on Jennifer’s mailing list and comment on her blog before the end of the hop. Be sure to comment about your favorite projects and why. Existing followers are automatically eligible to win.
BLOG HOP Schedule:
April 1-21.
April 1- Robert Kaufman/Jennifer Sampou- announce blog
April 2- Janice Ryan- Better off Thread
April 3- Alissa Haight Carlton- Handmade by Alissa
April 4- Julie Herman- JayBird Quilts
April 5- Natalie Barnes- Beyond the Reef
April 6- Stash Books- C&T Publishing
April 7- Amanda Jean Nyberg- Crazy Mom Quilts
April 8- Lee Heinrich- Freshly Pieced
April 9- Cheryl Arkinson- Naptime Quilter
April 10-Christina Cameli- A Few Scraps
April 11-Elizabeth Hartman- Oh Fransson
April 12-Faith Jones-Fresh Lemon Quilts
April 14- Katie Blakesley- Swim Bike Quilt
April 15-Amy Smart-Diary of a Quilter
April 16- Laura Nownes, Jennifer Rounds, Pati Fried, Darra Williamson- See How We Sew
April 17-Holly DeGroot- Bijou Lovely
April 18-Jennifer Sampou-Wrap Up
April 21-Jennifer Sampou- Announce Winner of Giveaway FQ Pack of entire ShimmerCollection.
If you need some more Shimmer in your life you can check out Shimmer on the Robert Kaufman Website
And if all of that isn’t enough, The Cotton Patch (CA, USA) is taking pre-orders of Shimmer.
Welcome to I Quilt linky party! This week I’ve been brave and got my improv quilting on If you’re new, please feel free to join in the fun and link up your quilty process. Don’t forget to visit three other linkers and add a link to my blog or button to your sidebar or post
This week I am featuring the lovely Serena from Sew Giving. I’m not sure when I first ‘met’ Serena, but I love following her quilting and sewing adventures. She sews the cutest items for her two little girls and seriously looks like she is having fun being a crafty gal, Mummy and farmer. Her deer cushion with the 3D pinwheel has to be about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!!
Image used with permission from Sew Giving
Last week Serena shared her first foray into free motion quilting. I love a quilty gal who shares! Such an awesome effort, the flowers in the border look perfect, I’m pretty certain that my first attempts at FMQ were nowhere near that neat!! You have to check out her post for the dancing elephants on the binding! Seriously good planning to get those buddies to line up LOL
Image used with permission from Sew Giving
This week Serena has shared her experience straight line quilting on her new machine compared to her old machine. Serena, I’m guessing that the walking foot on your old machine was not up to scratch. I also find that I get the best results SLQ if I consistently start and stop on the same sides, rather than going in one direction and then back in the other. If you go back and forwards it can increase the drag and give that kind of pulled/tugged look on the quilting. Not that you need any advice now, your most recent SLQ is PERFECT!! Well done xx
Image used with permission from Sew Giving
This week I have been working up a frenzy. I have so many commitments that need to be met over the next ten days that I am really having to work super hard and yet not burn out. I’ve been stitching til midnight most nights and this morning I woke at 5am because I realised that my domain name was set to expire and despite months of warnings I still hadn’t sorted it out! I ran down to the studio and was super relieved to find that I had set it all to auto renew so I still own my blog LOL *phew* Could have done with another hour or two of sleep though…
Of course in the midst of all the deadlines I figured that I deserved a treat so I pulled out an old WIP and decided to get stuck into it. This WIP is almost a year old. It is a really introspective piece and kind of a self portrait in an abstract kind of way (too arty? LOL) I guess I had been thinking about it in the back of my mind but I was a little hesitant as it was half quilted and I of course wanted to finish it on the longarm.
This is where I got up to in May 2013 on the Bernina and where I started this week on the longarm.
Anyway, I decided to forget about the rules and I loaded it onto the longarm half quilted and pin basted. I removed the pins closes to the top edge and thread basted it in place and then did the same for the sides. I only removed the pins as I moved onto each section. I think if I had removed the pins earlier I would have ended up with an uneven mess. Funnily enough I backed this quilted with an unused IKEA sheet. Man, quilting sheets is a right pain. I’ve done it many times and I don’t recommend it. I totally killed the needle on the longarm quilting this beast, but it was certainly much easier than I’ve found machine quilting sheets on the domestic machine.
The grey essex linen blend is quilted with 50wt Aurifil on my longarm. The white with 40wt Aurifil on the domestic Bernina.
I felt like a total kick-butt rebel quilting this baby. Breakin’ the rules man and going nuts! ;) But seriously, it was fun to quilt and it was a good experiment to see not only how to take a partially quilted piece and finish it on the longarm, but to see my growth as a quilter. Pretty much all of the grey area was quilted on the longarm and a small section of the white area. I’m hoping to enter this into a few shows and I really look forward to people’s reactions. I think it’s OK to break the rules as long as you’ve mastered the techniques. I wonder how other’s will feel about me breaking the rules… I hope the quilt police are kind
I had so much fun creating texture and I really had no plan of what I was doing or where I was going. I kept kind of thinking “over fertilised”, it felt like an alien jungle with too much growth and very organic and unplanned.
I plan to bind it in the next few weeks and take proper photos, but the above picture gives you a good idea of how I have grown as a quilter in the past year. The white was done on the Bernina after I’d been free motion quilting for about a year. The grey is done after about two years quilting and three months on the longarm. I must say, I’m pretty happy with how well the longarming is going
So that’s it from me for this week. Tomorrow night I will be with the Queanbeyan Quilters for the launch of their exhibition, so if you’re local and at the event, please say hi! I hope to pop back to the exhibition again over the weekend, but it will depend on other commitments. You can find all the details here. There are two amazing raffle quilts, so pop in and buy some tickets if you can
So that’s it quilty folks. Be brave and break some quilty rules, you never know where you’ll end up and it might just be awesome! Thanks for linking up and please remember to visit three of your fellow linkers, we all love comments <3
An InLinkz Link-up
It’s Thursday, it’s time, I Quilt and I’m guessing you do too So come link up your quilting process! This week I’m talking about quilting for a cause which is something that I think many of us have done. I was completely inspired by this week’s feature quilter, Kathy from Kayak Quilting.
Used with permission from Kayak Quilting
Kathy made a stunning grey house quilt. I love the mix of straight wavy line quilting and swirls. It really is a fantastic quilt, high in contrast and full of clean, sharp lines. But what I loved most about Kathy’s post last week was this: “A few hours each week my husband and I get to tutor children who have experienced homelessness…suffice it to say it is a gift to us that we have the opportunity to play a small part in these kids’ lives.”
Used with permission from Kayak Quilting
Kathy thank you for reminding us that we can use our quilting for others. Kathy’s lovely house quilt is going to be part of a silent auction for a Housing Families’ upcoming Gala. I don’t want to get all “holier than thou” on you, but I do want to give a virtual high five to all you special quilters out there who are using this wonderful art of ours to do good. Giddy up to you!! Please take a moment to go check out Kathy’s work at Kayak Quilting, thanks for sharing with us Kathy xx
Must quilt names into quilts at every opportunity! Hint: do not try this at night! Ask me how I know…
The past few days I have been quilting a lovely memory quilt (which is awfully hard to photograph without sharing all of the customer’s personal photos). There is a definitely travel theme going on and I love all of the cute prints.
Tres cool Paris and London prints <3
Last week I shared my binding tips and some of you shared your favourite tips back. I found these methods super useful, thanks to Quilt Paradigm and Mel of We Shall Sew:
Reversible Binding tutorial
Reversible Binding tutorial #2
Susie’s Magic Binding
So that’s it from me. Please remember to add a link back to my blog and/or the linky button to your post or sidebar. Please visit three other linkers. We all love visitors!
Happy quilting!!
Welcome to I Quilt linky party at Pretty Bobbins I’m claiming a win as it is still Thursday in some parts of the world…. So come link up and be merry!
I haven’t gotten myself organised to feature anyone this week but I’ll get back on top of that next week I myself was featured by my local modern quilt guild this week and will be sharing a post with them on what’s inspiring me soon. Once I write it… It’s a bit like that at present! But there is lots of exciting stuff on! Teaching schedules are being published by Addicted to Fabric and Hobby Sew Belconnen at the moment and I’ll add a page with info on the blog in the next week or so. I have some BEAUTIFUL Sarah Jane and Jennifer Sampou fabric here that I’m about to get busy with for some upcoming blog hops on the 13th and 30th of April. I also had a super exciting surprise email from Mark Lipinski and will be on his radio show on the 30th of April. I have just finished a magical quilt for the lovely Alyce of Blossom Heart Quilts. That one sure was difficult to post…
Piecing by Alyce Blythe, machine quilting by me
This week I wanted to talk about binding. Binding is definitely my LEAST favourite part of quilting and until I learnt how to machine bind I had a stack of quilts that were looking like never getting finished. There are a few different methods out there, but my favourite is by Red Pepper Quilts. Rita’s example is absolutely PERFECT. You know that I NEVER aim for perfection but enjoy the process It took me a few attempts to achieve binding that was caught on the back the whole way around and now I find it quite easy.
My biggest tip for machine binding is to iron the heck out of your binding after you have sewn it to the front. I use very small bulldog clips on each of the corners of the quilt (if it’s looking like the mitered corners are a bit tight I also use a dab of my sewline glue pen to hold them down) and no pins. I keep a quilting glove on my left hand to support the quilt and make sure that the weight of the quilt is not pulling it out of place. I use my (gloveless) right hand to keep the binding firmly in place as it approaches the machine needle. I find it best to bind a quilt in a single sitting whilst the binding is nicely pressed.
The above quilt, Colour Therapy, is only the second or third quilt that I machine bound and as you can see the binding is quite neat. If you fear machine binding or you’ve tried Red Pepper Quilt’s method and find it a bit tricky, another popular (and slightly easier) method is by Crazy Mom Quilts. She attaches her binding to the back, folds it over and then machine stitches it down, so you can actually see the binding and easily catch it rather than doing it by touch. I have used this method once (below photo) and found it to be very neat and easy.
This week I actually applied binding on the longarm for the first time! It was surprisingly easy and super fast! I just made sure that I basted the sides of the quilt very straight and then followed the outside edge of the hopping foot (as a 1/4″ guide). If you have a longarm and you haven’t tried applying binding on the frame I urge you to give it a go. You will be surprised at how easy it is and its a great time saver!
Please let me know if you have any binding tips or favourite methods so I can share them next week. Binding really is my least favourite yet undeniably essential part of quilting!
So that’s me for this week! Now to collect the children from school and face the weekend. YAY for weekends I say
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