Mosaic Runner Done

 

I did a little more quilting in the smaller squares on the Mosaic Runner.

But eventually, I stopped due to the bobbin running out. And it seemed done enough to m

I made a 2" binding out of smallish pieces of some of the darker fabrics that I used in the top. And that's all done.

Community Giving Binding and Tutorial

 

This is a combination of a post about getting the quilt binding done for the BAMQ Community Giving quilt AND a tutorial on how to join the ends of the binding using the The Binding Tool by TQM. This is mostly for me, so that I don't have to go watch the instruction video each time. I'm pretty sure I picked this tool up on the Free Table at a BAMQ Sew Day.

You sew on a 2.5" wide quilt binding leaving a 12" gap between your starting and ending points. And I mean as close to exactly 12" as possible. (this is one point I wasn't always the best at). If you don't measure this, it's hit or miss on whether the binding will end up being the right length.

The printing on the tool is ALWAYS face-up. The square end of the tool butts up against the spot where the stitching ends on the left, and you mark the binding with the "MARK HERE" line on the tool.

Unfold and open up the binding flat, right-side up, place the tool on the binding and align the "MARK HERE" line with the line you've marked. The binding fabric they use in the tutorial is a solid, so it's a little hard to tell which side is up so I wanted to note that mainly for myself.

Trim the binding using the angled side of the ruler. Okay, that's the left-hand side of the binding cut and ready to sew together, now moving on to the right-hand side.

Turn the ruler around, but don't turn it over, **Remember it stays Printed Side up**. Butt up the square end of the ruler to the stitching ending point. Mark the binding using the "Mark Here" line.

Spread open the binding, right side up. This is the point I've messed up so pay attention: Align the small angled edge of the ruler with the line you've marked.

Trim off using the angle of the ruler. 

It's pretty standard from here out, pin the two ends together, aligning the snub nosed ends.

Sew with a 1/4" seam. Press open.

Sew down the binding over the 12" gap you had left. You're done/

And then, when you flip over the binding, if you've got a label, don't forget to add it in. For a quilt that's going to be used and washed a lot, I don't hand-sew the binding.

There it is, all done! No gaps, no lumps, no tears or un-sewing.

I made the binding out of some of the quilt's own excess backing fabric (the green one) and a piece of fabric left from the backing of one of my quilts (the yellow one).

I hope that tutorial helps me in the future, and maybe you too if you happen to have this tool in your ruler stash.

Post Sew Day

I brought a few things home with me from Sew Day yesterday. As we were cleaning up at the end, there were several items left on the Free Table. I chose to bring home this lovely half yard of tree peony fabric as well as an interesting piece of perforated "Stitchable Felt". Not sure what it's meant for, but I am definitely going to sew on it, and will likely use it in my ICAD pieces this week ahead. Two new Fudenosuke brush pens that I got in the mail. And in the back there, a Community Giving quilt that needs to be bound.

That was the first thing I did today, I unrolled it to measure the size to see how much binding I need to make. And also which color/type of fabric I should chose.I'm thinking green blue or orange, maybe prints? There's one of the great embroidered BayAreaModernQuilting.com quilt labels that one of our members machine embroiders for us to use on these Community Giving quilts.

First I stay-stitched around the outside of the already quilted quilt. And then I trimmed off the excess batting and backing. There was enough of the green print backing fabric left over to use for the binding, I just need to find another print to add in to the mix and cut it all down to size. This is a really happy bright quilt and I love the all-over quilting design that was used.
 
 

Binding Chicken

 

Binding the 6x6 quilt began yesterday. The great tool that I have, Binding Baby , was put to use once again.

The green that I bough for the binding was a "close enough" match to the green in the quilt for me to use for the binding.

Kona Peridot or Bella Solids Leaf are the two green solids I bought last week to use for this binding. I didn't have any scraps of the green I used in the quilt top, and I didn't feel like bringing the entire quilted quilt to the store with me, so I made this card with two green fabrics that were on my worktable. One is the much lighter bright lime green that I used on the backing. The other was closer to the green used in the quilt.

As I was attaching the binding and rounding the final corner, the end of the binding came out of the binding baby as it was getting to be all used up. And I knew then that I wasn't going to make it.

First time I've ever lost at "binding chicken"! Many times I've lost at "bobbin chicken" of course, but this was a surprise. I guess I didn't round up quite enough, usually I make a lot too much of a binding. Not too hard to add more of course, but just a funny thing happening on the way to getting this quilt finished in time for the BAMQ UFO challenge.

City Sampler Done

 

Back at the machine for binding sewing on the last three sides of City Sampler.

I pinned and then sewed pretty slowly and it turned out very well. For bed quilts, I like to do a machine stitched binding for extra security. I guess I just don't trust my hand-sewing skills to stick around through many machine washes.

Approaching the final corner! Woohoo! I am so excited to have this quilt done after so many years. I made the blocks back in 2016, so I suppose this is "right on schedule," ten years later. As City Sampler is the Biggest Quilt that I've ever made, I am definitely not giving myself a hard time about how long this took me to complete. 

And even better, this is another one of my UFO Finishing Challenge projects that I get to cross off this month.

Now to take a final picture, which will be quite an undertaking, as this quilt is almost exactly the size of my Entire Design Wall. Not today though, which is the day after Arm-Day at the gym. If you know, you know, it's better to put it off a day.

City Sampler Binding 1/4

 

Had to clear the decks for the enormous City Sampler quilt. I'm stitching down the binding.

This is a big quilt!

Down to the last of the first side.

And done with one out of four sides!

Trinket Done

 

Time to finish the binding on the Trinket quilt. I wanted to use my fairly new left bi-level presser foot. 

Because I didn't re-read the directions, this meant that the entire quilt had to go through to the right of the presser foot. 

It worked fairly well, but was a little awkward to manage. Next time I'll apply the binding to the "wrong" side of the quilt, flip it over to the front and I'll be able to use the foot in the easier manner.

Anyways....the Trinket quilt is DONE! I really love it and I'm so happy with how it turned out.

That's four out of six of the 2025 UFO Challenge quilts done. Woohoo! Amazing how motivating it is to me to make a list like this. Of course that was the four easiest, but I have a lot of the year left to work on getting the last two done.

Halfway Bound

 

The binding for the Trinket quilt has been sitting in my binding bag for a while, so it was easy to get started on sewing the binding onto the newly finished from quilting edges.

I really do enjoy the color combinations like this one with the dark berry/wine solid that I used. It just glows so much more.

I'm trying to remember to use my new bi-level (on the left) foot for doing the second step in binding by machine. The previous sentence hopefully helps with that!

Running Out of Raincloud Finish

I have another quilt finish to post! Two in a row, that must be some kind of record for me. This time it is Running out of Raincloud, which just needed the facings to be hand-stitched down and the hanging sleeve to be added. 

I added the facings at the BAMQ retreat in March, but they needed that hand-stitching on the back to be done to count this as a quilt finish. I got most of it done while keeping friend Jaye company while she worked on another very cool quilt in progress. Thanks to her for the excuse to sit and get my hand stitching done! Sometimes a change of venue is what I need to get unstuck and finish something.

More pictures of the finished quilt and the crazy amount of quilting I did on this one.

This was designed and made for the 2024 MQG challenge, but unfortunately it was not finished in the correct year to actually be entered. Oh well, I got it done anyways and learned a lot by making it. 

This is also another one to check off of my 2025 UFO Challenges list, that leaves three left to be finished: Temperature Quilt, Trinket and Bohemian Wife. I'm really glad I signed up for this UFO challenge thing, because I've gotten 3 out of 6 quilts finished now, by the halfway point of the year, too.

Many Bindings Day

 

Today at Sew Day, I spent my time making binding, lots and lots of binding. For the City Sampler and the Bohemian Wife quilts. Both soon to be going to a long-armer for quilting.

And then the binding for Metro Twist.

I only did the first step of sewing the binding on as I didn't have the matching blue thread to final stitch it down. So close to done with this one.  That was a lot of binding for one day's work, phew, glad it's made.

Quick Community Binding

 

I attended the BAMQ meeting yesterday and picked up this Community Giving quilt that needed binding to made and applied. Isn't this a fun one, I really love these zingy colors. And since I'm on a roll with binding things, I figured I'd get one done for the group.

First I stay-stitched the edges of the quilt, just because it helps the seams that hit the edges not pop open.  Then I trimmed off the excess of batting and backing.

I found a fabric in my purple boxes that I thought worked really well, ironed it, cut it and sewed it up into some 2.5" binding. After all that, actually sewing the binding on was pretty easy and quick.Now to try and remember to bring it along to Sew Day to turn it in. 

Hey, that's another amount for me to add to my Fabric Tracker for the year. With this addition it means I'm at 4.23 Net yards of fabric. To be specific according to my calculations, 34.78 yards Bought - 30.55 yards used so far. Meaning I've added 4.23 yards of fabric to my stash so far this year.