Saturday, April 30, 2016

Rain Ripples - Modern Binding

I was at a trunk show by the lovely and amazing Karen McTavish a few months ago where she showed the progression of her quilts from traditional to modern.  Since I am new to the modern quilt movement, I found her comments about it quite interesting and informative.  One comment that piqued my curiosity and inspiration was that modern quilters were adding small pieces of color to their bindings.  I knew I had to try it.

So when my Rain Ripples project for Island Batik Ambassadors turned out modern, I knew it was time to try something different.  First, I cut two long white strips of binding and some small pieces to make a rainbow.  (Click here to see the first post)





I have very little fabric left, so some of the stripes were very skinny.  However, I felt that fit with the scale of the pieces in the quilt so it worked out okay.  I was also out of orange, so that color (alas, one of my favorites!) was left out.


In order to figure out where I needed to connect the white piece to the second piece of rainbow, I laid the binding out around the quilt and marked where I wanted the second rainbow to start.  I then cut the fabric off at this point and connected the two pieces of binding together.


Next of course was to iron the binding in half.  At least it was a small quilt!


Again I laid out the binding and took a look.  I realized that the red was towards the middle of the quilt on both sides.  Oops.  Since this quilt is a learning process I decided to leave the binding this way as a reminder to myself when I decide to try it again.


Another oops happened when I sewed together the ends of the binding.  The angle of the rainbow was not parallel at both ends.  OOPS.  Again, I left it as a reminder for next time.  I also wondered what it would really look like once it was only down to a quarter inch.  I knew the mistakes wouldn't show up as much as I thought they would.


Above you can see the quilt before turning the binding over.  Below you can see the quilt after turning the binding over.  I was right, once it's skinny it's not too noticeable that I made so many mistakes!  I also realized that I should've pressed all the rainbow seams OPEN instead of to one side.  This binding was truly a learning experience!


HOWEVER, I love the outcome.  The little splash of color in the binding is too fun.  I definitely have to try this again!  Please come join me in my Machine Applique Adventures Facebook Group to get in on all the fun.

I'm going to go sew....and enjoy my birthday since it is today!
Suzy









9 comments:

  1. It's wonderful!!!!! And, unless pointed out(!!!!!!), all appears as "planned".......it's YOUR quilt, after all!!!!! hehehe...........

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  2. Happy Birthday! Love your quilt binding, I will have to try this as well!

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  3. Baie geluk met jou verjaarsdag! Pragtige kwilt!!♥♥♥

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  4. Happy Birthday! Love the binding!

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  5. Happy Birthday! Love the binding!

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  6. Such a fun and refreshing quilt. I believe every quilt made has some learning experience in it.

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  7. That is a neat quilt! The quilting is really neat, and I like the rainbows on the binding. Fun.

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  8. Happy birthday! Thanks for sharing your learning on colour flash binding - very informative! I've only tried it once, but with random flashes of just one colour. Love how your quilt turned out!

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  9. Happy Birthday and thank you for giving us a gift too, it's a great tutorial on a stunning quilt. It is truly unique and beautiful. Cheers Glenda

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