Websterquilt: Scalloped Binding

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop

I am excited to be a part of the Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop by Beaquilter today! I went searching through my quilt book stash and found one from the year I graduated from high school...it's old enough I think. Here's a hint...

Circles of the East is based on traditional Japanese Family Crests. The funny part was that the book had post-its marking the ones I liked....many years ago. Guess what? My taste hasn't changed much. I picked one of the marked patterns.

Image result for 1997 japanese crest quilt book

I didn't want to make it as large as the book said, so I played around with it on my scanner and in photoshop. You can see that the design is a flower with butterfly antennae coming out. When choosing fabrics I of course dug into my pile of Island Batiks! I am an Ambassador for Island Batiks and I simply love working with their fabric. I also chose their gray solid to use as the background.

Here's the first round of pieces all stitched down. I do blanket stitch applique as it's my favorite.

You can really see the stitches on the back.

I decided to do something different with my circles in the middle of the flowers. I used suede. Yes, you read that right. There is an advantage to using leather. It doesn't fray! I also decided to add some more circles outside the design. I think I'm a glutton for punishment. Those circles were not large.

Next came the quilting. You may ask why the quilting stops....wait for it...

The batting is Hobbs Tuscany Silk. I love how it drapes and find it works well for minis. It is of course quilted with my favorite Aurifil thread.

And the back...keep scrolling! It's worth it I promise.

Ta da! I did a scalloped binding. This binding is 1/8 inch wide and it was a real trick to do those inner points. NEVER AGAIN (though I did say that two years ago too...I guess this technique just has to age for me to try it again!).