Binding - my tips - plus finishing "White Diamonds" no.14

Binding! This is actually one of my favourite parts of making a quilt. I used to hate it. Reasons being that it was the longest process to make binding and I had to make it because I could never find pre-made binding that worked with my colour choices. Once there was a massive sale at Lincraft and they sold pre-made binding. I bought so much of it simply because they were the closest I was going to get to match my fabrics. I still have some left but since purchasing a binding maker I am more inclined to make my own. This way I can match my fabrics perfectly and keep that 100% created by me reputation I like to uphold. Anyway I would like to share my tricks to making my binding clean and perfect. And by perfect I mean I've never had to redo any part of my binding.
The first tip is new because I can now use a double needle. In the top image you can see I have a double needle sewing the binding. Now it is hard to tell but when making binding using the small gadget (see in previous posts) you make two flaps which result in a crease in the fabric. On previous binding using a normal needle I would sometimes sew off the crease and when I folded the binding around I found these little creases showing on the side. They are awfully hard to iron out and mostly it doesn't help. Now if you use a different method to making binding - such as just folding the strips in half, sewing the raw edges on the edges of the quilt and then fold around - you won't have this problem. However if you have one of the gadgets to make binding like the type I make, this double needle tip is great for minimising those creases. All you need to do is keep the folded crease in-between the two needles and you will never have those crease issues again. That was a very long explanation but believe me - this idea has changed my life!
So what I really want to show you is how I join the end of the binding together in a clean and inconspicuous way. This part annoyed me the most. I tried a few different ways and was never really satisfied with the result. I believe I worked this out on my own when making a portfolio for a client a few years ago and I believe it is the best way to make the finish nice and durable.
So I start sewing my binding usually on the side of the quilt in the middle and I leave a bit of binding unstitched, like a tail. Once I go all the way around the quilt and come back to the side I started on, I sew down to a point where I am close to the other tail but still leaving a large gap.

Next I lay the quilt flat on a table and measure the binding against the quilt to see how much I need. I do this by pinching the two tails of fabric and checking that the quilt and the binding are both flat.

I then fold the binding upwards and downwards to make a small crease and then pin the binding together where they should meet. 

Next I fold the quilt away from the binding and sew the binding tails together at the crease and pin marking. Now on most occasions the binding widths don't always match but the beauty of binding is that there are no raw edges, so you can hide it. The only thing I would suggest is try and match the fold creases together rather than the edges of the fabric. 

 Check to see that the binding is flat against the quilt's edge and then trim the excess fabric. You can then pin it into place and then sew it down using your machine making sure the seam is sewn flat. 

Now you have a durable machine sewn closing of the binding. Now this example is not great close up mainly because this is a large pattern size fabric and it has words on it. However from a distance it is not noticeable and if you are using smaller size pattern fabrics it works a treat. When it comes to closing off edges like this I do prefer machine sewing as it feels more durable, plus it's so much quicker. 

 One more thing I want to share is how I hand sew my binding to my quilts. Slip stitching I find a bit hard. I do need to practice more but with my first quilt I slip stitched and well you can see all of it. I dislike it so much sometimes I feel like redoing it, but there are so many stitches it would be so much work (and I guess it shows how much my skills have grown). So because I hated seeing the stitches so much I changed the way I did it and I only have just now worked out what kind of stitch it is called. I ladder stitch my binding. Yes it took me about eight years to realise what I was actually doing. I like using this stitch though because I can do it securely, quickly and well enough that you would never know that it was stitched. I believe it gives a clean finished look to the quilt and I don't have to worry about thread being seen. While I was hand stitching no.14, I watched "The September Issue" as well as part of Season One of "The Community."
"The September Issue" is one of my favourite documentaries - you can see me watching it in the photo above - I really wanted to work in fashion when I was in high school and though I realised I didn't have the personality to be that competitive I really enjoy the process of designing, creating, producing and marketing products. I guess it is why I still do it, but in making quilts and other miscellaneous goods I don't feel so pressured because the community is so eager to learn. Yet even so I would like to promote and sell my products one day and this blog is part of it. So to all who are reading this, thank you. I really am astounded at all the different people who are reading my blog and it is really inspiring to share one of my passions with you.

In closing - I finished "White Diamonds" last night. The final product and the first finished quilt using my new Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.2, more commonly known now as Thor. I'm sure he would be willing to bow if he could bend that way. So I am extremely proud of this one and though the white diamonds are not perfect I am so happy as it's a quilt pattern that I've wanted to do for some time and it has double needle stitched boarders, and I used fabric in my stash. I'm really happy if you couldn't tell. 

This is a long post! Sorry about that. I'll try and be less talkative. Eventually I won't have to explain my ways so much. But I am a teacher, it's part of my job. I hope it all made sense and that you try these methods out. If you have any tips to share, you are welcome to comment below - I'd love to hear the methods you use as I love learning new things. 

Thank you so much for reading. Sew happy.

Miss Mae

Name revealed - no.14

Number 14 has now been bestowed with a name. Yes, I am excited by this because I usually have trouble giving names to my quilts but with the look of it, this one was obvious. But I'm not going to tell you until the end.

So continuing with day two and three, and would you believe it? This quilt got bigger than I expected. I am so into double borders lately but I forget how many inches it adds to the quilt. This required expanding my backing by joining two pieces together and the stripes made it super easy to disguise the seam. I normally use really small patterns for backing but this one the large stripes still worked. I basically matched the two brown stripes and sewed in the middle of the stripe so it looks the same width as the other stripes in the pattern.
I then ironed both front and back and laid them on my lounge floor. Using my pool noodle and quilting spray glue I assembled the quilt. I love this method because I don't have a large table but I can still prevent any puckering.
So in purchasing the fabric for the borders, I also finally bought some quilting safety pins. I have been using large quilting pins to hold my quilt together since I started quilting and I would always get stabbed. Quilting always turned out to be a painful experience, until now. Yes not a single gasp while quilting this one. I am surprised it took me so long to get them.
(Though I had no idea they existed for a while)

For the quilting I used a normal straight stitch and followed a diagonal pattern across the squares skipping the small white squares. I used a blue gradient cotton thread on top and a brown gradient thread on the bottom. The reason behind the choice was that I simply wanted the top thread to stand out and have the bottom thread more muted. Quilting the front panel wasn't all that difficult or long. The extra room on Thor made it far more comfortable than on my old machine. Thor is an amazing machine. It sorts out any potential puckering or problems with ease and I feel that I don't have to put in as much effort to match seams, press fabric flat or anything. It really has simplified the process of making a quilt for me which makes me so happy. You can see my little finger in one of the photos here. It's healing fine but slowly. I'm hoping it'll get better soon.

Now for quilting the border, I am finally going to return to the double needle quilting. My old Pfaff machine could not handle this procedure no matter how many times I tried. They were tension issues mostly so I just gave up on it and quilted in other ways. But now I have Thor which has settings for this specific process. So I gave it a try, with a trial of course, I wasn't about the go straight in on my pretty much perfect (no mistakes yet) quilt. I tried and it worked! I have been waiting to do this for so long. It was one of my lessons when I first learnt how to make quilts. "Quilt it properly" is what I was told. Plus it gives it such a lovely texture and I really miss having that. It is also something I can do myself. One day I might explore having my quilts quilted elsewhere with something fancy but currently I like having my quilts completely made by me. I used a 2.5 millimetre wide double needle and a combination of Polyester and Cotton thread. I wish I hadn't used Polyester because now it might melt under an iron. I don't know that I'll need to iron it but I might iron the quilt with the back facing up to prevent that from happening. I know now for next time. Use cotton thread! All the time!
So anyway the double stitching was so quick I could not believe it. I stitched seven rows on each brown boarder and again there was no puckering and only one problem with the tension. I think Thor needed a rest, but he's very good at letting me know that there is something wrong.
Music I was listening to was a bunch of Hanson EPs as well as Lifehouse "No Name Face", Jewel "Spirit", Tracy Chapman "Collection" and The Corrs "In Blue". I was in a lighter mood while doing this and I really enjoy singing these songs.

This is how the quilting looks on the back of the quilt. It's really nice I think. I barely had to redo any of the stitching which shows how wonderful my machine is. I left the white border completely clean as I think it would have destroyed the effect. The same goes for the small squares on the front. I did test out quilting around the white squares and though it look great on the back, It looked horrible on the front. It drew a lot of attention to it and I really didn't like it. I decided to unpick it and leave it alone because the seams on those areas are not perfect and it just looked bad. Trust me on this.
I am going to leave the binding off this post as I would like to do a tutorial on how I match the two ends cleanly. I cannot remember if I saw it somewhere or if I worked it out myself. But however I learnt it I would like to share it. So the final picture without the boarder is below, let me know your thoughts.
Time for the name of this quilt...

"White Diamonds"

I feel that it is quite obvious as when you look at it there are white diamonds all over it. I don't know why I have trouble with names. I guess cause it's a bit final and I want something that will suit. So that's the name. Let me know what you think.
Tune in for my next post which will be a tutorial on binding.
Thanks for reading.

Miss Mae

Beginning a new project, with others still unfinished. (no.14)

The latest quote to pop up on my Instagram feed that made me laugh out loud was this...

"You know that feeling when all your sewing projects are finished? Yeah, me neither."

I've been unable to finish some of my projects due to an unfortunate incident a few weeks back where I cut a decent piece of skin off my right pinky while making dinner. Not to get into details but due to having to wear a fairly large bandage around my finger it made sewing very difficult. It is now healing well and because I only took some skin off it should grow back to normal after a few more weeks. Now it's healed enough to just cover with band-aids, I can finally sew.

And yes I began a new quilt. This will be my fourteenth quilt even though it is quite possible I will finish it before no.13. I won't be changing the order though. Quilt 14 is significantly smaller which sort of takes me back to when I first started quilting. It was also somewhat unsettling, as my quilts tend to get larger with each new one I make - downsizing was a bit of a surprise. But I realised that I didn't need to make massive quilts every single time. I've now come to peace with it after seeing how quick it is to make.

So for this quilt I am finally using one of my layer cakes of 5" pre-cut squares. The collection is from Moda called "Piecemakers" designed by Kathy Schmitz. I love the colours in this set and it really suits a baby sized quilt. There were 42 squares and when I laid them out in a 6 by 7 rectangle I was a little underwhelmed by how it looked. The colours were pretty but it didn't stand out to me. So I went to my Pinterest Board for quilting and found this patchwork design from
'byway-hobby.blogspot.com.br"
I really like this block and it is such a simple design, but with the diagonal diamond quilting, it is so effective. I found some white and cream fabric from my stash and tested the design and loved it.
With the pre-cut squares and 60 small squares to make from the white fabric, there was little cutting to do which made this project very easy to start.

The patch simply needed to add the smaller white squares to the corners of the bigger squares and then trim the seam. Some squares only required one small square, some needed two and some didn't need any. As shown in the original design the small squares do not appear on the edges of the pillow and look like the number 5 on the side of a dice. I wanted to replicate that look only to be made into a quilt, so I kept the small squares within the middle of the front panel.
Making the front panel, I was very careful not to confuse the lay out of the fabric. The fabrics were all on the floor in order and I picked them one by one so to not accidentally mess up my placing. Thor, my Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.2, breezed through each one and it felt so nice to be able to use him again after 2-3 weeks.

Music I listened to was Lifehouse, Daniel Powter, Mika (The Origin of Love) and Hanson (Roots & Rock 'n' Roll EP). Of course I'm likely to have different music for tomorrow.

Piecing together the squares was fairly unproblematic. The only thing I wish I'd done differently was to make those smaller squares slightly bigger. The small squares were about one and three quarter inch and I completely forgot about seam allowances. Had I made them at least two and a half inches the squares would have firstly looked bigger, and secondly be a little easier to meet seams together. However with a little persuasion I was able to get them where they needed to be without any puckering.

Pressing the seams flat was simple and quick as was completing the front panel. I am astounded how fast it is to make a smaller quilt, I haven't made one for years and I think I might do it more often.

After completing the front panel I then cut my boarders and my binding. This binding I believe it the best binding I have made in a while. I was able to cut the right width for my little binding tool and ironed it with ease. I do cut my bias on the straight mostly because I find it is easier to work with when hand stitching it. But I really am excited by this fabric in particular. It has a bunch of sweet words on it such as cupcake, lemon, bakery, cake, chocolate etc and I am looking forward to sitting down and hand stitching this binding to the quilt. The word pattern compliments the design as there are fabrics on the front panel with words on them too. The colours work so well together I am so itching to see the final product. The final front panel is below, I will be bordering firstly with the same white fabric as the small squares and then a darker brown with a blue and black accent. The backing will be a blue, cream and brown stripe pattern. Let me know your thoughts and stayed tuned for the next post.
Happy quilting.

Miss Mae

Something Special The Reveal (part 3)

The reveal... yes I have given my client her gift and she literally teared up! Then she proceeded to thank me several times and to be honest that is why I sew. I really enjoy seeing reactions of joy on my clients' face. It just makes my day.

So on with the reveal.
The portfolio has one clasp closure which keeps it all together. The folio allows for one book of A5 size as well as pens, pencils, paperclips, notepads, sticker sheets, business cards and other important documents.
The cover in is quilted with hexagons of 7cm wide in diagonal rows. It is bound with a bias strip to keep all raw edges closed.

The inside was accessorised for the client including a pen, pencil, notepad, bookmark, bull clip, paper clips and an A5 book. They were selected to compliment the fabrics and gold accents.
The cover was personalised with the client's name so it's extra special. The exciting thing about having Thor is that I can make these personal touches. And yes I have been going on and on about how wonderful my new machine is but it's only because I haven't been able to do anything it offers. Button holes and zips were a nightmare before and now I can make them with ease.
Anyway enough about that. My client was so happy to receive this. As she is a follower of me on Instagram, she had been following some of the progress. She was so curious as to what the final product was but she had no idea that it was for her. It was truly wonderful to see her face light up when she opened it.
The reason for making this project for her was to accommodate for her business. She is an artist in Plush design as well as watercolour painting and cosplay. She takes commissions and is extremely talented. She will be moving to Japan in two months and has created an Etsy shop to sell her small plush patterns. Link to her shop will be below, you most definitely should check it out.
She will be using this portfolio for her planning and business. I'm so excited for her to use it and to get the best out of it.
Thanks to her for the inspiration, it is one of my favourite pieces I've made and even more now that it will be used and loved.
Links to her shop are below as well as the link to my Instagram. Feel free to visit.

Comment below on your thoughts. I'm so happy to receive any feedback.

Miss Mae.
















Chinta Etsy Shop
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/ScarletSongstress?ref=search_shop_redirect


My Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/miss.mae90/

Something Special Part 2

Several processes to finish this project including decoration, personalisation, assembling and binding. With the size of this project it was fairly faster to complete. These are the last processes in completed, I will save the big reveal for another post.

The inside pockets were designed to fit two writing implements, business cards as well as paper, receipts, sticker sheets and paper clips. The design is very simple with the writing implements and business cards to be stored on the right and the rest on the left. As my client (Shhh... she doesn't know yet) has her own business and needs to have everything on hand I have allowed this to be a kind of business wallet for her designs and her contacts details. I included a small decorative stitch on the top left pocket for some added flare. It is of similar colour to the fabric but I believe if it stood out in a different colour it would look a bit tacky. Hence the gradient quilting thread.

The next decoration was a small hexagon flower for the inside of the portfolio. So instead of 7cm hexagons that are on the front panel, I downsized to 1" hexagons. I'm currently also working on my first all english paper piecing quilt using 1" hexagons so I had a ton of these templates.
Sewing all the petals to the middle hexagon, I then sewed the sides together. After I carefully irons the flower with an iron before taking out the tacking thread and paper templates.
I appliquéd the the flower onto the top right hand corner. This was a slower process as I had to be careful to stitch outside the lines. The flower is so small there was a lot of turning, I put the machine on a slow setting and using the pressure foot to run the machine instead of the start/stop button. I sewed around the edges and in the seam ditch to secure it to the inside of the folio.

After putting the finishing touches on the inside, I followed on with the outside personalisation. So I will show this part in the reveal, (as my client may be reading this) but "Thor" (my new machine's name) can stitch letters! So I can now do a level of personalisation without hand stitching! For my quilts as well, this is a life saver as far as labelling goes. The process is all automatic using the start/stop button and all I had to do in this project was make sure that the name was straight. I was able to personalise the portfolio with the client's name with out any time wasted!

Once that was finished I then squared the lining of the portfolio to the front panel carefully so I could close the folio with ease. This included testing with a book and a few pens inside. Pinning with huge quilting pins, I trimmed the excess fabric of the front panel and zig-zag stitched the edges together. I do not normally do this with quilts as in most circumstances the quilting keeps the edges together. However in this case there wasn't anything keeping the lining and the front panel together. I didn't want any slipping so this was a necessary step.
Next came binding! Has anyone used these awesome binding making tools? This is one of my favourite things to use other than my scissors. This one creates 1" width binding which is what I always use and I wish I knew about these things years ago when I started quilting.

You simply cut a width of one and three quarter inch strips and sew the binding strips to get the length you need. I cut the end of the binding on a 45 decree angle and then pull the fabric through the binding tool. Using an iron you carefully iron the fabric as it goes through the opposite side. It creates the folds in the fabric to make ready to sew binding. It still takes some time but it beats folding the fabric in half and then   fold those halves into half again. Anyway so sewing the border was easy with the secure of the zig-zag stitch.

The hand stitching was pretty quick because of the size. I was watching Scrubs while I did this. One on my favourite parts of doing sewing is having the excuse to watch DVDs while still being productive.
So it's finished! I'm very happy with the result. I'll reveal the final accessorised product once the client has received it. It's exciting to complete something for someone.
Stay tuned for the reveal and my client's reaction. I can't wait!

Miss Mae.