40 x 40 - 14. Learn How to Bind a Quilt

Over the past couple of years I have started a new crafting experience with quilting.  I love playing with the fabric.  Picking out different patterns, different textures, different colors, and then using my imagination to make them come together.

Making a quilt actually happens in four main stages.  To help explain the stages better, I will equate them to photography.

Stage 1: Selecting the pattern and the fabric = Snapping a photo with your camera (This is like looking at something raw and having to see the end product in your mind.)

Stage 2: Cutting out and sewing the top of the quilt and the back panel = Editing your photo on the computer (This is often the longest step in the process and really requires that you take your time and focus.  Sometimes you have to rip out a seam if lines don't match up.)

Stage 3: Taking the top panel, the middle filling, and the back panel and quilting them together = Getting your photos developed (Unless you have the proper equipment, you often send this stage out for someone else to do.)

Stage 4: Binding the quilt together around the outer edges = Framing your photo for display (This is putting the finishing touches on your project.)

Once you start to quilt, you start to look around you and see all of the beautiful things you can make.  When Scott, the boys, and I went to Hawaii a couple of years ago I made a point of dragging Scott to a quilt shop that I found on the Internet.  I really wanted to get fabric that I would later make into a quilt.  Not having a pattern in mind, I just bought a yard of eight different fabrics.

I decided on a pretty basic block pattern.  What I liked about the pattern was that it has black borders around each square.  This really helped with the bright mismatched Hawaiian fabric.

Here is the quilt top that I took down to be quilted.  (It's very hard to quilt on a regular sewing machine.)



Once I got it back, I was ready to try my hand at binding.  I picked one of the eight fabrics that I the most left of.  I cut the fabric into several strips and then sewed those strips together.    Once I had a strip long enough to go completely around the outside of the quilt, I pinned it to the quilt front and headed to my sewing machine.



Here you can see the quilt top with the binding pinned to it.  You can also see the white inner fill and a little bit of the backing piece.  Once the binding piece is sewed completely on, these extra edges are cut off so that I can wrap the binding around to the back and hand sew the rest of it.



Here is my husband being crafty with his camera angles.



In this photo you can see the quilting thread pattern and the binding sewed on to the front.



Then it was time to head to the couch to finish with the hand sewing part.  You can stitch this part on by machine, but I wanted to be somewhat of a traditionalist and sew it by hand.



Folding over the binding piece from front to back, I would take my needle and catch the binding and the back piece, sewing them together.



And finally, the finished product.



This quilt taught me one very important lesson in paying close attention to the pattern shapes and the direction of the fabric.  Some of the fabrics had patterns that went in one specific direction.  Not thinking about this, I had to recut some of the squares because I cut them in the wrong direction.  I could have used them if I needed to, but because I had enough fabric I fixed this.



I currently have two baby quilts at the quilter and one ready to drop off when I pick those up.  One of my favorite parts of binding a quilt is that I can make a cup of tea, put on a Hallmark Channel movie, and sit on the couch with the quilt on my lap without feeling like I should be doing something.
Yeah, I think this quilting thing might stick around for a while.