Sunday, January 24, 2010

Tired of Looking at Baby Quilts Yet?

 
Yes, I agree, I probably need to move on to a different type of project, but I still have a few more baby quilts in the queue so you will be seeing them for a little bit longer.



I tried fully machine binding this quilt and I learned a few things... (for those of you who have never done a machine binding, you stitch the binding to the back of the quilt instead of the front of the quilt and then you pull the binding around the edge and top stitch the edge of the binding down onto the front of the quilt - it is basically the reverse process of when you hand stitch the back side of the binding)

1) If you are going to machine bind I would recommend a 2.75 inch binding. I used a 2.5 inch binding with a 3/8th of an inch seam and the problem with that is that when you pull the binding over and stitch the other side of the binding to the quilt, half of the time the stitching is on the binding and half of the time it is on the back of the quilt itself. I would prefer that all of the stitching be on the quilt to keep the binding looking clean.

2) If you are doing machine binding I would choose a thread color that will make the stitches hard to see because it isn't as clean of a look as hand binding.

3) I would recommend a patterned backing and binding to hide the binding stitches as much as possible so they blend in with the project.

4) Be sure to use a foot on your machine that allows you to stitch very close to an edge consistently.


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