Island Batik Ambassadors Mini Challenge Part 3

My Island Batik Magnificent Mini is complete!  Today I'm going to share with you how I did that crazy curvy binding!

Here's the quilt before I started the binding.  I used Hobbs Tuscany Silk Batting and Aurifil Thread for the quilting.

Here's the back! 

The next step was trimming the curvy line marked on the front.  Then it was time to attach the binding.  I decided to use bias binding since it bends and flexes and I was going to use a single fold binding, but my friend Sarah Ann Smith suggested using a double fold so I tried it.  This binding is only 1/8 inch thick since it's a mini so I cut it at 1.5 inches wide on the bias.  I then attached it very slowly and very carefully.  It was NOT easy, but it turned out well.  You could only take a few stitches before having to stop and turn the binding.

Then came the mini binding clips.  I LOVE these!

After hand stitching the back here is the finished quilt!  I am in LOVE with it.  It's so classical and dainty finishing at just 14 inches.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

A Curvy Binding Part 2

As I sat and stitched down this curvy binding I realized a couple of things I want to try in the future:

1.  Would a thicker binding help?  Perhaps a 1/2 inch binding instead of a 1/4 inch binding.  (It is a single fold binding)
2.  I cut into the interior points while I was putting on the binding.  Would it turn out better if I didn't do this?

Food for thought for next time.  You can see that the interior point doesn't lay well.  I tried to pull it in and stitch it down in a miter, but there wasn't enough fabric to make it work well.

If you look at the left interior point and the right interior point below you can see that they are vastly different shapes.  One more rounded the other nice and point.   Thing to work on...

Since I didn't want to block and flatten the quilt when I was done I used an Eraser Pen to get rid of all the blue marks.  It worked great!

The final table topper.  I love it even though it's not perfect!  One thing I have definitely learned in doing my blog is that not everything I quilt has to be perfect.  That's okay and it's even more fun that way!

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

A Very Curvy Binding

A year or so ago I started making this quilt top.  If you look closely you can see that only part of it is quilted and there's a blue outline as to the final shape I wanted it to be.  This quilt was sample for me about doing curvy bindings.  I've done large, loose curves before without any issue.  However, I'd never done something smaller.  This quilt is about 16 inches across.

After the quilting was complete I cut out he final shape of the quilt.  I love it, but it was daunting to think about putting a strip of binding around those curves.

Here's the top with the binding all sewn on.  I cut into the points so I could "straighten" the edge when I was sewing the binding in those sections.

Come back Wednesday to see the finished product.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

All Fired Up - The Quilting and Binding

"All Fired Up" is my second quilt as an Island Batik Ambassador.  It uses their new Fire Island line of fabrics coming soon to a quilt store near you!  Be sure to look back and see the other three parts of the series on how I made this miniature quilt!

When we last left off, the quilt was marked and ready for quilting.

I knew I wanted this quilt to be a show quilt, so I decided to use two layers of batting.  The bottom layers is Hobbs 80/20 and the top layer is Hobbs Heirloom wool. Many show quilters use two batts with wool on top to make their quilting pop.  I generally don't do this on my large quilts because it makes them really heavy, but I love to do it on my miniatures.

I then pin-basted the quilt.  It's my favorite way to baste.  Admittedly, I am a bit of an over-pinner, but my backs are FLAT.

Here is the quilt once it was quilted.  I was able to do all the feathers and outlining with just over one bobbin and the outside fill around the edges too a second bobbin!  I recently took Wild Quilting from Cristina Cameli on Craftsy and she talked about combining designs in one area which I did on the outer border.  I combined pebbles, swirled large pebbles, and outlined teardrops.  It makes the edge more interesting.

I was planning to put these feather designs pointing towards the center of the quilt, however my mom suggested that having them pointing towards each other would add an interesting design element.  I'm really glad I did it that way instead!

Here is a closeup of the feathers in the center of the quilt.  It's the first time I've not marked my feathers on a competition piece.  I am super happy with the results.

Here is a picture of the trimmed quilt before I added the binding.  You can see that I decided to do an interestingly shaped binding treatment on the edge of the quilt.  I took a class on binding in Houston a few years ago and have a great binding book to use as a reference.

Putting the binding around this shape was a challenge, but it turned out to be easier than I expected.  What was REALLY CHALLENGING was dealing with these little bitty inside points and making sure to overlap the binding in the points like you see on scalloped edged quilts.  Needless to say, this was extraordinarily hard and I decided that a mini was definitely NOT the place to learn this technique.  I finally made the decision to rip off this binding after an hour of frustration.

I then took an oval template and adjusted the edging of the quilt so it was all a flowy curve with no inside points.  I actually really like the shape and am quite happy I changed it.  I then cut new binding and sewed it on.  It was much easier the second time around!  Since the binding needed to stretch around curves I used a single layer of bias binding.

You can see that I use binding clips to hold down my binding while I sew.

TA DA!  The finished quilt.  It only took me a little over an hour to tack down the binding by hand.  It was MUCH easier to do flowy curves in the binding than points and I am VERY happy with the final results!  Off to show it goes soon.

Back to my Flower in a Pot Series on Wednesday!  Happy Quilting!

Suzy