Birthday - July 26, 2009

So the binding is done, and the Hawaiian quilt is officially a quilt.

Yea!

Here's a look at how I do my binding.

I do it all by machine. I am a child of the new millennium, and have no desire to hand sew a binding ever in my life.

I'm quite sure there are many people who disagree with me, (I read your blogs!) but I'm ok with that.

Just tuck and roll, tuck and roll.

I tuck the quilt back into the binding, and roll the binding over to the back. Then sew it down.

If there are any stray threads, I just tuck them in before sewing it down.

By the way, the neon yellow is the "Post-It" trick. It's amazing! The idea is that you put a post-it in front of the... is it the throat plate? Is that what it's called? Or am I confusing it with a carburetor? Anyhoo, it keeps the bottom seam from catching and flipping the wrong way. It really works.

Back to the binding.

If I'm making a baby quilt, or something as a gift for someone, I like to hide a note in the binding. Just some good wishes, or a blessing or two.

Sometimes I write it on a tiny strip of fabric with a permanent Sharpie type pen, sometimes I write it directly on the binding.

Clip off the corners...

And when I come to a corner I just fold it up and try to land right where the two sides meet. This is not a very good picture, but can you see it?

Then pivot and keep going.

Tuck and roll, tuck and... well, you get the idea.

And this is what you get.

Like that.

Done! Here he is on my unmade bed...

And here he is on the stairs...

And here he is posing on the hood of the car, pin-up style. See? he's doing the sexy "Look over your shoulder" pose.

What a lovely quilt!