Owls and Trucks for Oliver Finished!

I finished a commissioned quilt today for my friend's little boy!  I'm really happy with how it turned out, especially with my first experience machine binding a bed sized quilt!  I always believed in the nobility of my walking foot, and used that to sew my binding to the front of quilts and I hand sewed to the back.  However, I have noticed that here is where a thread is often likely to pop.  And especially with a quilt that will undergo use by a little boy, I thought I should entertain the idea of machine binding some of my quilts.  I had seen a post somewhere about a dual feed edge stitch foot and the benefits of using one on machine binding.  I do have an edge stitch foot, but was afraid of losing the feeding action of the walking foot.  Well, I tried it and am happy to report that it worked BRILLIANTLY.  I couldn't be happier (or have finished faster!) with my new little best friend.  I still like the look of hand sewn, but this is a great method and one I have confidence in for a quilt I am sending out to someone!



Here is my little friend in action.


And here is her work. The blue fabrics are on the back and the yellow is on the front.

 

There are several tutorials on the internet of how to machine bind a quilt, this one by Crazy Mom Quilts describes exactly the method I used for mine. And here is the back of the quilt!



I wonder what my friend will say when I tell her I've decided to keep the quilt for myself? ;)

A Quilt Makeover

This quilt was already made and shown on this blog once before. However, the binding wasn't making me happy. And, since this quilt is in the heavily used category in my home, it was already starting to fall apart. Notice that my quilting was very sparse. Those long, lonely, lines of stitching pop quilt easily, I discovered, as I heard that tell tale sound more than once when this quilt was tugged and pulled by my boys (and me).

So I ripped off the binding. And picked out all the quilting. And re-did it along all the seam lines. And here she is again.



The fabric is Fox Trails from Riley Blake and binding is Kona Solid in Lake. The backing is flannel, an argyle print from Riley Blake as well in blue. The pattern is one of my favourites: Small Plates from Elizabeth Hartman's book, Practical Guide to Patchwork.

Fandango Charming Stars Finished

With one sick child and just two littles at home, I was able to put up my feet and watch "Fly Away Home," (sob), and sew on binding this morning!

All finished!

I chose Kona solid in Sable, which I had in my stash.

Edited: August 17, 2012 This quilt has gone to its new home this summer. A final shot from the spring, which I think shows its colours the most accurately. Thanks for everyone's interest in this quilt. Here again is the link to the pattern at Moda Bake Shop.

Binding Rural Jardin Stars Quilt

Up late tonight to finish binding my Rural Jardin Stars quilt:


Some pictures will follow when the quilt is washed and dried, at least by Thursday!