Don't look now!

Sweet good byes ...

Before I jump into this weeks happenings I just want to say an enormous thank you to all of you for the absolutely amazing response to my last post. Your kindness means a lot to me. Thank you to those of you who also shared with me pieces of your past. This blogging community is a compassionate one filled with so many amazing and generous women. I am pleased to be a part of it. After reading Kirsten's beautiful I am from I felt compelled to write my own and I am very pleased that I did, it is quite a cathartic process and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

Yesterday I sadly cleaned, oiled and packaged up a dear old friend .... she has been so very good to me! We have spent many a long hour together. She has served me well! Good bye my sweet 440 :( ....

 

And hello 820!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

   

Woooo Hooooo ... this has to make the transition to 40 a whole lot easier!!! She has only just made it outside the box as all the usual Sunday night rituals had to be attended to first ... but you can be sure that it will be unlikely that I will get any sleep tonight!!!! For those of you in Melbourne I got her from the lovely Kate from Kate's Sewing Centre in Bundoora and did she do me a deal... well she actually did Mr Don't Look Now a deal but you know what I mean! She also gave me an unbeatable trade in for my 440 as well! So if anyone is interested in a 3yo well cared for and well loved 440 you will find one on her shelves today.

So other than this pretty amazing machine what did I else did I get for my birthday ...

From my dear friend Lisa I got this beautiful package ....

 

Thanks Lisa you are so sweet to have thought of me! I am sad that you live so far away! 

I bought myself a copy of Photoshop Elements after getting quite excited by this post which lead me to this post ... . I may never actually work out how to use it ... or more to the point I may never actually get the time to work out how to use it, but I would like to!

I was also pretty excited to find out that my circles quilt will be displayed on the Living Creatively stand at the Stitches & Craft Show here in Melbourne later in the month ...

 

I've called the quilt Circue des Cercles which is French for Circus of Circles.

 

My quilt that I have been working on for the past few weeks finally made it's trip to Sydney & you will hopefully get to see it in August this Year. I called it Love Birdsand it is eventually going to belong to my Jessica. It will be her 7th Birthday present ... sadly she wont actually get to snuggle in it on her birthday but hopefully she wont mind too much.

 

We are very lucky here in Melbourne to play host to the Australiasn Quilt Convention which started on Thursday and finished up yesterday. I made the trip in on Thursday and had a great day visiting all the stands and checking out all of the quilts. I was pretty excited by what I found on the Homespun / Quilters Companion stand ....

I don't think that I am meant to actually show you all yet ... but honestly that little bit of a quilt that you can see there is my quilt!!!! You will get to see the whole thing next month in the April edition of Homespun!

I was meant to meet this girlat the convention but forgot to write down which stand she was going to be on so I just wandered around all day madly reading eveyone's name badges like some weird stalker. Next time Jan!

But guess who I did get to meet last night ....... the Peppermint Patcher herself ... oh and her Pete! It was lovely to meet you Tracey and I'm looking forward to our trip to the my fabric mecca tomorrow! 

I also got to meet some other lovely ladies including Claire, Lisa, Fairlie& some other lovely ladies who I will link to in my next post (I was hoping that someone else would have already done the links so that I could have stolen them ... dam it!!!). Anyway it was a lovely evening even if Mr Don't Look Now did stretch my tolerance levels when it comes to innovative parking!!!! (long story)

Before I go I will leave you all with a couple more pretty gorgeous versions of my designs. Firstly, Norma from Petit Debutant has made one of the Flower Garden pillows & Jen from Quilting Sisters made a pretty lovely quilt using the applique design from the Art Smocks.

There are so many more things that I wanted to share but I really need to get back to my new machine!! And a new project ... plus a couple of old ones that need finishing (Sue this week I promise!!!!) ...

 

Have a great week!

Kellie

The ins and outs of bindings, hanging pockets and striped binding strips!

I have been planing this tutorial for sometime and I hope that you find it useful. Most patchwork and quilting magazines and books provide explanations regarding how to apply a binding to your quilt. Dear Fi also posted a great tutorial a little while ago, so there is plenty of information to access out there when it comes to finishing off your quilt.

So why bother with another tutorial you may ask ... well I finish off my bindings differently to the way that most instructions are detailed. It is not something that I have invented. It has been done this way by many, for a long time. It is a little more fiddly than the regular way but it will give you a better finish ... have a go and let me know what you think!

In this tutorial I have included;

• How to add a hanging pocket

• How match up stripes when joining binding strips with a mitered seam

• How to finish off a your binding with a mitered join 

Adding a Hanging Pocket;

On medium to large sized quilts I make the finished width of my hanging pockets 4". Depending on how you want to mount your quilt you may want to make this slightly smaller for small quilts. Just remember that the finished width will be half the cut width minus 1/2". 

1. Once you have squared up your quilt you will need to measure the edges of it and record it somewhere where you won't loose it. Cut a strip of fabric for the hanging pocket that is;

8 1/2 " wide by the length of the top edge of your quilt

2. Turn over the edge of each short end of the strip of fabric 1/4" and press. Turn the edge over again another 1/4" and press. Secure the hem with a straight row of stitching. 

 

3. Fold the strip in half length ways and press.

4.Locate the center of the long edge of the sleeve and mark it with a pin and do the same with the top edge of your quilt.

5.With the back of your quilt facing up, lay the pocket on top of the quilt matching up the centering pins, ensuring that the raw edges of the pocket line up with the edge of the quilt. 

6. Pin the pocket in place. You will notice that the pocket is now approximately 1/2" shorter on each ended than the quilt top due to the hems that we just made ... this is perfect!

The pocket will now be secured when the binding is sewn on ... but first lets join our binding strips!

 

How to match up stripes when joining binding strips with a mitered seam;

I don't know about you but I love striped bindings and when the stripes match up it's even better! :)

1. Make your binding strips - I usually just cut my binding along the straight grain of my fabric and I generally cut them to a width of 2 1/2".

2. To calculate the number of binding strips that you will need;

• add the measurements of the edges of your quilt and add an additional 20"

• divide

this measurement by the length of the individual strips that you cut and this will will give you the number of strips you will need in total. 

3. Place the two ends of the binding strips that you plan to join, right side up, side by side in front of you.

4. Find the same print repeat point in both pieces of fabric - mark these points with a pin. (see below) 

 

5.With right sides together place one length on top of the other matching the pins - see below bottom left hand corner of the overlapped fabric.

 

6.Using a ruler with a 45 degree angle marking - line up the 45 degree angle with the edge of the bottom piece of fabric and the diagonal of the top strip, as shown below, mark this line lightly with a pencil.

 

7. Pin and sew securing the start and stop points of your seam. 

 

8. Open the seam out and check that the stripes match up - if they do trim your seam allowance to 3/4" and press the seam open.

  

  

9.Once all of the binding strips have been joined fold the strip in half and press.

  

How to attach your binding and finish it off with a mitered seam

1.Take one end of the binding and position it on one side of the quilt top matching raw edges. Begin slightly off center leaving a tail approximately 10" long.

2. Pin the binding in place along the remaining length of that side. Mark 1/4" from the end of this side with a pin.

 

3. Using a walking foot sew down this seam maintaining a 1/4" seam allowance. To help me maintain this seam allowance when I am using my walking foot I mark the distance 1/4" from from my needle with a strip of masking tape. I then use this edge to line up with the edge of my quilt.

 

4. Finish this seam and secure your stitches at the 1/4" point that you previously marked in step 2.   

   

5. Remove your quilt from your machine and fold the binding to the right. Use your ruler to ensure that this fold is at a 45 degree angle - see below. Pin in place. 

  

6. Fold the binding back to the left ensuring that the fold matches up with the edge of the quilt. Pin in place. Pin the binding to that side of the quilt, again marking 1/4" from the end point.

 

7. Sew down the length of the side od the quilt stopping at the 1/4" point and proceed as per previous corner. 

8. Continue in this same way until you reach the side where you began. Secure the binding with pins and sew. Finish stitching 10" short of your starting point. Secure your stitching.  

  

9. Over lap the binding by the exact width of your binding - in this case it is 2 1/2". Trim the excess binding. 

  

10. Fold the quilt over right sides together. Take one end of the binding, place the short edge along the long side of the other binding end - matching up as shown below.

11. Mark the 45 degree diagonal with a pencil - this will be your stitching line. The first couple of times that you do this you may want to pin along this line and check that everything fits nicely before you sew the seam. 

  

12. Once you have sewn the seam, lay the seam flat and refold the binding and check that it sits nicely along the edge of your quilt.

  

13. Once you are satisfied with the fit, trim the seam allowance to 3/4" and pin the binding in place. Complete the seam.Unfortunately, the stripes at this seam won't match unless the Gods are smiling on you :)!

  

14. Turn the binding to the back of the quilt and blind stitch in place.   

 

15.When you fold over the binding at the corners fiddle with it until the miter sits nicely. Secure with pins and blind stitch it in place.

16. Once you have finished sewing the binding, blind stitch the bottom end of the hanging pocket.

17. Stitch the ends of the hanging pocket making sure that you only sew down the side that touches the back of the quilt - leaving an opening through which a hanging rod can be placed. 

 

18. Add a label and your done!!!

 

I hope that this is helpful.

I will 'see' you all again on Sunday this week ... I'm spicing it up a little :).

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Kellie