Wednesday 11 June 2014

WiP Wednesday: the one with no binding

I should be working. Not fun at the sewing machine kind of working, but day job working. But I so want to show what I have been working on this week. Soooo, here I am :)


I have been working on my Michael Miller Challenge project for the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild. Look Ma I made a curve! It's a wall-hanging, improv style. There is a lot going on in this baby and as I was finishing off the top I was stumped about how what to bind it with. A solid may distract the eye, a print, this thing does not need more prints. I really didn't want a binding at all.

I have been using the book Quilt Improv by Luci Summers for this quilt so I hit the book to see what  Luci did for binding, and low and behold no bindings there either! Following her advice I made a quilt sandwich like this...


Sandwich your finished quilt top with a piece of batting. Trim batting to the size of the top.


Lay the top and batting right sides together with the backing fabric


Sew all around the batting leaving a 5" to 6" opening. Trim off any excess backing and the corners


Turn the pocket right side out and press all around the edges to get a neat seam


Hand stitch the turn-through hole closed and quilt at will!

Now, the whole issue of quilting did not escape me. If there is no binding, where do my quilt lines stop and end without a whole lot of work on things like burying stitches and the like? Simple solution, I didn't end my lines. I did this


Yup, I think this works.

I am almost done this top, so I will reveal all very soon. But this whole, no binding thing, very good deal. Mind you I don't think I would do it for a quilt that would get a lot of use, but really, for everything else, Heck yeah!

So this was fun! I love talking about something new that I have tried. But now, I must get back to the day job. Have you tried anything new lately?

Linking Up with Lee at Freshly Pieced, because I can :)
Adrienne

P.S. those quilting lines are not meant to be straight. I call this organic straight lines. You heard me. Organic.

9 comments:

  1. Looks great! I absolutely love the fabrics you're using :)

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  2. We used this method a lot when I started quilting in the seventies, nineteen not eighteen :) we called it 'bagging out' - and I heartily approve of organic quilting!

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  3. Hmmm... that is an interesting binding (or should I say no binding) technique. I'll have to file it away for future reference. Can't wait to see what your finished MM challenge looks like!

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  4. As a non fan of binding -- I am eager to give this a shot. I am guessing that this works best for smaller projects and probably wouldn't work that well for larger quilts.

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  5. You're the second no binding poster I've read this week... and since I hate adding binding, this is sounding VERY appealing, Adrienne. Can't wait to see the finish!

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  6. What a great solution!!! And I think it looks good too.
    I bet if you quilted 1/2 inch in from the edge it would kinda look like a binding....
    On another project, not on yours, yours looks great :)
    Can't wait to see it! I guess I should work on mine too....

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  7. Perfect! I love the way you did the quilting. I have this book, but haven't really given it a try.Can't wait to see:)

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  8. Really clever quilting. Thanks for the trick.

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