Life wasn't meant to be easy

or several sub-titles spring to mind:
"You can learn something from every quilt you make"
"Don't try new techniques when you are trying to finish something quickly - or late at night when you are tired"
The story goes:
I found this fantastic new binding idea - see my previous post here.
I wanted to try it and have it done so I could show others at both of my sewing groups - one of them last weekend - and I wanted to do it on something I planned to finish off very soon to meet the Sew its Finished deadline of 31st May.
(Can you feel the pressure growing yet??)
So I tried it on a small Christmas wall hanging. I made the binding by joining a few short strips together and carefully not matching any of the joins to reduce the bulk.  I sewed it on - and as with any small quilt you don't have the luxury of having a BIG gap to fiddle with the ends.  It was late - my sewing room was disrupted because my daughter and husband were staying and I was tired.  It didn't join up easily - so I just did one side of finishing the binding so I could take it along last Saturday.  All good, although I didn't really like the "invisible" thread - no dramas, I used a longer stitch so it should be easy to unpick.

Monday night - time to finish it off.  It took a bit of fiddling but I got it all pinned together and realised that if I used some bull dog clips - pretty pink ones - that it would hold the quilt in a bit so it was easier to match the ends.  Otherwise I find that it tends to spring back flat when I am twisting and turning the ends of the binding.  (So using clips is one of the things I learnt) 

Things seem to match up pretty well - so I stitched it - I did it by hand - in case - and laid it down, ready to stitch  . . .mmm  something wrong here.

So I ironed it - to keep the lines where I needed to sew and unpicked it - tried again and now its fine. 

 Maybe not perfect but OK  and I used red embroidery thread this time.

Now just to sew on a little star button and a label (of course) and its done.  A picture next time.


Generally I am really happy with this binding idea.  I found the corners folded in well and I like the idea of not having a lot of hand sewing later on.  And an easy way to introduce a peeper. 

AND

It's not too late to let me know you want to come to the Blog Meet on Sunday.  Leave a comment here if you want to come along.

A Clever Binding Tutorial

I found this excellent binding tutorial over at Aunt Marti's blog - 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks. (She got it from Susie.) I haven't tried it myself - but it looks easy enough - it is quick and I think it would be great for babies/children's quilts which might get extra washing and because its machined - there are no little traps for tiny fingers.


Marti also has a lot of other tutorials on her blog and recently posted the most beautiful photos of lakes.  Go here.


So pop over here and have a look at all her stuff.  Thanks Marti.


Happy Sewing - and remember the Brisbane Blog Meetup.

For Brisbane Bloggers

A few of us managed to bump into each other at the Mad Quilters Gathering last week and thought we would try for a quick Blog Meet Up - on Sunday 3rd June.  Yes I know it's soon but by the time we removed school holidays, the Sydney Quilt Show and a few other things - that was the best we could do.
So the usual place (Cleveland Grandview Hotel) and lets say meet around 11 for coffee etc and then stay for lunch.  Perhaps those who are making Some Kind of Wonderful (either via Chookyblue's SAL blog or by themselves) would like to bring along whatever they have done so far.  Its NOT a competition - its just for fun. Or any other Show & tell is always appreciated.
Please pass this on to anyone else in the area - the more the merrier - but please give me an idea if you think you will make it so I can organise the Hotel.
Hear from you soon.

Colours

My husband sent me an email with this picture attached - sorry I have no idea where it came from but I don't think I need to explain further!