Smart and Magical

Tips and inspiration for your quilting journey

I’ve been focused on binding lately.

I am starting work on another of my late mother’s UFO’s. So this morning I made binding for 6 almost identical Peter Rabbit baby quilts.

It's quilt factory in the studio right now

Note that all the fabric for 5 of the quilt tops hasn’t been cut yet, but I have already prepped the binding because:

it made me feel good to get a task completed, and
some of the fabric that still needs cutting for the tops had to take a trip through the laundry.

As I stood there pressing all that binding this morning, I was thinking about an interaction I had on Threads this week.

Someone posted that she doesn’t “fold corners right” when she attaches binding . She was obviously happy with what she does, and I was curious as to what that was. So I asked. And I found out that one of her common methods is one I absolutely cannot make look right (folding the backing to the front).

How I bind my quilts

I have a way I make binding and a way I attach the binding. And the way I do it works really well for me and the quilts I’ve made so far.

You can see my method in this YouTube.

Do we need to know any other way?

I read an excellent Substack post this week from The American Peasant - a woodworker.

In the post Christopher Schwartz describes experienced woodworkers standing around dissing another experienced woodworker’s method because it’s a different method from what they usually use.

For me, the diversity of voices is the most important part of teaching woodworking….. Even techniques that seem on the fringe can rescue you in a tight spot.

-Schwartz, The American Peasant

Asking another quilter why they did something a certain way will teach you something new.

Watching different people quilt, trying new methods, and following the ‘weird’ instructions in new patterns all serve to give you more experience.

Stretching yourself is worth it. Experimenting is worth it.

Because the more varied experiences you have, the better you’ll be able to solve problems along the way and successfully design your own unique quilts.

In search of a binding solution

Earlier this week I had a quilt where I wanted to ensure that the binding was sewn on at a very specific point so that the points of my quilting lines didn’t get cut off.

I’ve run into this issue in the past and have a technique I use, but it has always seemed a little bit too fussy and at risk of not having a straight edge.

So I played with a different method on this quilt.

I don’t have a winner yet.

But the method that quilter who doesn’t ‘fold corners right’ uses? A variation of that might work. If I knew her in real life I’d be over her house to see how she does it successfully.

In the meantime, I’ll keep experimenting.

Happy sewing,

P.S. I hope to have progress to share on The Peter Rabbit Project soon, plus pictures of the two quilts I’ve finished this year – which are just waiting on the final step of, yes, hand sewing the binding to the back.