Favourite Things Friday: Stripey Bias Binding

Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire. –Arnold H. Glasow

I am one of those people who like to do the binding on a quilt. It is hard to say, because I really love everything about quilting, but I think that it is my favorite part because it means that a quilt is about to be finished . And that is a fabulous thing.

My favorite kind of binding is stripey binding, cut on the bias. It just makes me happy. I do continuous bias binding {someday soon, I'm going to update that tutorial with better pictures and make a downloadable PDF version}, and it is way easier than cutting individual strips of binding and sewing them together one by one.

I am finding that another of my favorite things is free-motion quilting. After I quilted my first free-motion quilt about eight months ago, I remember really disliking it and thinking that I would probably never do it again. I just finished quilting my eighth quilt, Cozy Posies, last night . And I absolutely love how it came out. I tried feathers for the very first time. Can I get a whoop whoop ?

I'd originally planned to do an all over loops and flowers meander on this quilt. It was something a little different than quilting I've done previously, but still familiar enough to be safe. But Wednesday morning as I passed it laying on the living room floor up on my design wall, I had a flash of inspiration. I thought that feathers would be really great in the rows of coins. My motto is Go Big or Go Home, and after the last quilt I did, where I stuck with something I knew rather than branching out a bit and trying something different, I decided to go for it. I sketched out a few rows of feathers, but was anxious to move on. I stitched a few rows out on a practice quilt sandwich and then I just went for it.

For Friday Night Sew-In {which I started the minute I got home from work, just after 2:00 this afternoon}, I did the binding and then I threw this baby in the washer. I think I've been converted to the throw that quilt in the washer as soon as it is finished camp . I just pulled it out of the dryer a bit ago and there was still enough light outside to get a few good shots of it {thank you, Daylight Savings Time }. Isn't that stripey binding so much fun!?!

And here's the back. I'm really in the Frolic groove, so I think I'll spend the rest of my Friday Night Sew-In working on getting my other Frolic quilt finished. Then, I ABSOLUTELY PROMISE that I'll work on Mr. Bug's T-Shirt Quilt. Cross my heart and kiss my elbow .

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