February 26, 2012

Some Martha Quilts

I finished quilting and binding three donation tops we have been making with some of the Martha fabrics at our Remnant meetings.  The scrappy disappearing nine patch blocks.

I used some favorite pantographs.
"Water World" by Jodi Beamish

I only have a few pantographs by Dave Hudson, but I sure like that he puts directional arrows on his pantographs. Sometimes when I stop and take a break to change a bobbin, or change thread I lose my place or have to retrace where I stopped and which direction I'm going. I've been known to go the wrong direction more than once! :o) With  helpful arrows that can't happen.

I put the bindings on by machine. I've been practicing and using Judy Laquidara's method of machine binding. (See the side bar here under Tutorials.)  I think I'm getting better at it. I found that if I stitch the binding on front with a contrasting thread. Then when it's time to bring the bindings around and over the edge to the back and cover that front line of stitching with the binding edge, the line of stitching really shows up well and I'm sure to pin the binding correctly as Judy describes in her video.


The bindings machine sewn to the quilt backs.
The bindings machine sewn to the quilt fronts.

Practice does help.  I really want to master sewing on bindings with the machine, especially for donation quilts.
I haven't posted any pictures of Sassy lately. This was taken a few minutes ago.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sassy is so cute!!
Your bindings look really nice on the front. What I do on donation quilts is stitch the binding on the back. Flip the quilt to the front, pull the binding over, and stitch it down with a serpentine stitch. You could use another appropriate decorative stitch. It looks nice, you don't have to waste time doing any pinning, and you don't have that extra edge of binding loose on the back. Sharon ssauser@dishmail.net

Purple Pam said...

I have been wanting to try doing my bindings all by machine. I just haven't taken the time to practice. I enjoy sewing down the binding onto the back by hand. With baby quilts and childrens quilts I am not sure how long my hand sewn binding will last. I must try the all machine binding soon. Thanks for the nudge. All your bindings look great. And I love the colors you have chosen, too!