Wednesday, February 29, 2012

A Finish by My Mom

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.' –Erma Bombeck

My mom texted me this morning with a photo of this costume for a Junior High School play. She said she wanted to join the February Finishes Linky party. I was really excited for her. I told her if she couldn't get it to work, I would post it for her. I talked with her really quickly and she told me a few things about her finish.


The next-door neighbor came over to her house on Sunday night wondering about borrowing a sewing machine. Since her machine is kind of expensive, she doesn't lend it {who can blame her, right?}. So she offered to put the costume together. The girl said she needed it by Monday for dress-rehearsal, but there was no way to finish the costume in that amount of time, even though it was already cut out. The top is a v-neck peasant blouse. The skirt has 16 panels and about 8 yards of ruffle. She said it took forever to hem and because of the bulk in the ruffle, she zig-zagged over a piece of dental floss to create the gathers, because the thread broke pulling in basting stitches. She finished the costume last night and dropped it off at 5:30 am, on her way to work this morning.

Because this is my blog, I'm going to editorialize. My mom is a wonderful seamstress. She does absolutely beautiful work and does not have an "I do not upick" policy. She taught me to sew, supported my habit, did my zippers, taught me how to do my own zippers and encouraged me to do something I love. Thanks, Mom. I love you. You did a beautiful job with the costume and I'm glad you could link up with us this month.

Here's a photo of her neighbor after the performance. She was one of Miss Adelaide's Hot Box Dancers in Guys and Dolls.

Today's post brought to you by:

Leap Day Giveaway: Retro Inspired Apron

You've got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you're not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice. –Steven D. Woodhull
Leap Day Giveaway

Hooray! Today is Leap Day! I'm really excited to offer a cute little retro inspired apron to one lucky winner, made-to-order in the size of your choice. The little apron on the right is an example of the apron and the fabric and rick-rack on the right are what your apron will be made of.

Fabrics are pre-washed 100% cotton and each apron is professionally finished to stand up to a long life of washing and wearing. The winner's apron will be made to order in the size of their choice.

Children's Sizes:
Extra Small (3-4)
Small (5-6)
Medium (7-8)
Large (9-10)
Extra Large (11-12)

Adult Sizes:
Extra Small (2-4)
Small (6-8)
Medium (10-12)
Large (14-16)
Extra Large (18-22)

• To enter, simply leave a comment on this post.
• Non-blogging/non-Google users and international entrants are welcome.
• If you do not have a Google account, use the name/url {url optional} commenting option and make sure you leave your e-mail in your comment in the following format: address (at) domain name (dot) com.
• Comments with no contact information will be deleted.
• Google account users: not sure if your contact information will be attached to your comment? Click here:


• Duplicate comments will be deleted. Comment moderation is on, so don't panic when your comment doesn't show up. I'm notified of new comments and will approve them periodically throughout the day, after which they'll show up on the post.
• The giveaway will close at 10:00 pm {MST} on Wednesday, February 29th. Winner will be chosen by random drawing and notified by e-mail and announced here by noon March 2nd.

Don't forget to check out all of the other great Leap Day Giveaways!

Leap Day Giveaway Guidelines:
• Choose something to give away on Leap Day. Keep it simple. You can make something, give away a bit of your stash, offer a service, buy your favorite gadget to give away or offer something completely non-crafty. Your blog, you choose.
• To participate in the blog hop, your giveaway must start and end on Leap Day {February 29, 2012} in your time zone. You can open it at 10:00 am and close it at 10:00 pm, or go midnight to midnight, or anything in between. Your blog, your rules.
• Your giveaway winner does not have to be announced on Leap Day, but should be notified within a reasonable amount of time.
• Post your giveaway and then link up here. Please remember to link to your specific post {instructions here}. Please also include the Leap Day Giveaway button {code found below} somewhere in your giveaway post.

• The linky will open at noon MST on February 28th and close at 10:00 am MST on March 1st, to allow for people in different time zones to participate.
• If you want to include the linky tool on your giveaway post then others can link up from your blog and it will automatically update in every location the linky is posted. The code is available here or under the linky below. If you choose to add the linky to your post, you MUST include the above rules so that it is fair play for all.
• Consider changing your comment settings to the pop-up window option for faster and easier commenting for all the visitors who'll be stopping by your blog. Instructions can be found here.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Polka-Dot Quilt at A Snail's Pace

The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground.
–Unknown

I really wanted to have a whole quilt to show off today. I'm not quite done with the quilting, so instead, you get a tiny sneak peek of the swirlies I'm doing in between all the circles.

I ♥ polka-dots. The first polka-dot quilt is a gift for a special aunt {I may have mentioned this already}. And I'm making one to keep at Bug Cottage for snuggling up under while reading or watching TV. I've got half the quarter-circle blocks sewn together, and I'm determined to finish this quilt before I get distracted by anything else. I kind of have to because I've embroidered “March 2012” into the quilt label. Nothing like a deadline to keep you motivated.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Reminders

A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside. –Denis Waitley

The Leap Day Giveaway Blog Hop is right around the corner! There will be quite a few participants and I can't wait to see what everyone is giving away. Make sure to stop by and see all the fun things that are being offered. If you'd like to joins us and give a little something away on your blog, here's how it works:
• Choose something to give away on Leap Day. Keep it simple. You can make something, give away a bit of your stash, offer a service, buy your favorite gadget to give away or offer something completely non-crafty. Your blog, you choose.
• To participate in the blog hop, your giveaway must start and end on Leap Day {February 29, 2012} in your time zone. You can open it at 10:00 am and close it at 10:00 pm, or go midnight to midnight, or anything in between. Your blog, your rules.
• Your giveaway winner does not have to be announced on Leap Day, but should be notified within a reasonable amount of time.
• Post your giveaway and then link up here. Please remember to link to your specific post {instructions here}. Please also include the Leap Day Giveaway button {code found below} somewhere in your giveaway post.
• The linky will open at noon MST on February 28th and close at 10:00 am MST on March 1st, to allow for people in different time zones to participate.
• If you want to include the linky tool on your giveaway post then others can link up from your blog and it will automatically update in every location the linky is posted. The code is available here. If you choose to add the linky to your post, you MUST include the above rules so that it is fair play for all.
• Consider changing your comment settings to the pop-up window option for faster and easier commenting for all the visitors who'll be stopping by your blog. Instructions can be found here.

Leap Day Giveaway


Leap Day Giveaway


Also, this is a reminder that the February Finishes linky party will be open through 10:00 am on March 1st. If you've finished a stitching project {appliqué, crochet, cross-stitch, embroidery, knitting, practical sewing such as garment construction, bags, curtains, etc., or quilting}, by midnight on February 29th, link up and show off your creation. You don't have to write a new post to participate in the linky party. Just add the button below to your post and then add a link to your specific post {instructions here} to the linky party. The best part is that each time you link up a finished project, you're entered to win the February giveaway, a Reunion by Sweetwater Jelly Roll!

Such a Sew and Sew

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Sunday Sermons: A Book of Mormon Story

The Book of Mormon actually helps to complete the message that the Bible is sharing to the world. ... The way the Book of Mormon has change me the most, it has filled me with the desire to become like Jesus Christ. –Chris Cook

Saturday, February 25, 2012

2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge: February Motif

Life is full of obstacle illusions. –Grant Frazier

I will admit right up front that Diane Gaudynski's Echo Feather exercise for this month scared the starch out of me. I left the post about it open in my browser for a good week, looking at it several times a day, before I even attempted to sketch out some feathers.

I wasn't very happy with how they came out, but typically my quilting is better than my sketches, so moved to a practice sandwich. I tried a branched feather for a bit of interest, but my quilting wasn't any better than my sketching and I lost focus and doodle-quilted a couple of things I wanted to do in another quilt.

Then I decided I'd better get serious. I tried again, this time with a single plume. I still wan't happy. My echoes weren't coming out as smoothly and evenly as I would have liked and I was having trouble doing the bottom of the feather and then curving upwards to do the top part. I usually do them the other way around.

I went back to the drawing board. I doodled out several more pages in my practice notebook and then drew a final version in my quilting journal.

Then I did another practice feather. I decided that my “weak” side was the left side, so I swapped directions, making my plume curve up to the left, which saved the bigger feathers for the right side. Meh.

I felt that quilting an echo feather following the instructions just wasn't working for me. I was having a hard time making pretty curves at the end of the feathers. I decided to switch it up and start the feathers at the top of the spine and work backwards to see if that would work better. That was a train wreck, which I tried to disguise with a few swirls and feathers branching off from the site of the accident.

Frustration set in at that point and I decided that echo quilting is NOT a beginner skill. Just to prove to myself that I could actually do pretty quilting, I whipped out a feather in the margins of the practice sandwich. There was a bit of drunk driving at the tip, which just goes to show that humility and patience are virtues.

After a bit of grumbling, I decided that the whole point of doing the FMQ challenge was to not only see and try new quilting motifs, but to stretch a bit and learn new techniques and that I'd better go by the instructions. I probably should have done a couple more practice feathers, but I went ahead and quilted on my sampler quilt. My shapes still aren't as pretty as Diane's and my echoes aren't as even as I'd like, but it is progress, I think.

Before I started the challenge, I decided that I wanted to use thread that shows up on the sampler. I had picked out a deep purple to use for the feathers {seen in the first two practice attempts}. When my feather didn't go too well, I decided to go use a tan thread, which still stands out, but not nearly like the purple. I'm thinking that by choosing darker threads, I'm pulling the focus off the quilting and onto the stitches. If I switch to lighter thread now, I'll have to unpick my leaves from January, otherwise they will really stick out. I suppose if I want to switch to more subtle thread, now's the time. Something to think on.

Today's post brought to you by:

Friday, February 24, 2012

Peponi

All deep things are song. It seems somehow the very central essence of us, song; as if all the rest were but wrappages and hulls! –Thomas Carlyle


Available from The Piano Guys, on iTunes and at Amazon.

I was hooked from the first note. The music speaks for itself. But just in case you'd like to know the backstory, I heisted this from the Piano Guys.

The story behind the song:
Each time we write/arrange a tune we take a journey. We have to admit—this journey took us a lot further than we expected. Retracing our steps reveals several factors that made this a reality. As we started arranging it we had serious writer's block. Perhaps some of the worst we've ever had. In fact, one day instead of writing we went around the entire studio with a can of WD-40 and coated every piece of metal to ensure that we were a squeak-free studio. Then on a whim we decided to back away and take an entirely new approach to the song—an African approach. It may seem random in retrospect, but at the time it was an exciting way to restart the arrangement. It was working, but our journey still was on foot until we called in Alex Boye, one of the most talented people we've ever met. Alex has this contagious energy that gave new life to the song and to us. He sings the tune in 4 different languages: Swahili, English, Yoruba (his mother's native language), and Alex's own African "scat" (we'll call it...Scafrican :shy:) Most of the words you hear are translated from the lyrics in the original Coldplay Tune. We're huge fans of Alex — We bet you are now too!
Follow Alex on Facebook

When we had finished the arrangement we all agreed that listening to it was like taking a journey to somewhere remote and ruggedly beautiful. How were we to depict this with a cello, African percussion and, most difficult of all, a grand piano? We took a risky, but oh-so-valuable turn when we called in helicopters to air-lift us and our instruments where none had gone before! (Please excuse the Trek reference). Since no one had ever done this before where were we to go for advice? Well, we can tell you that Home Depot didn't have a lot of answers (how disappointing) but we did clean them out of their strongest cable they had. We don't mind telling you that when that helicopter began lifting our brand-new-never-before-played grand piano into the air we couldn't help close our eyes and cross our fingers. We consider a blessing of Heaven that it worked. I guess we figured that if it didn't, maybe it could still be a viral video — “PIANO MOVE FAIL.” :shy:

We'd like to thank from the bottom of our hearts, Duane Fielding who offered the helicopters and SkyHawk for not dropping the piano...:faint: Half-way through the first day of shooting we discovered that, as typical guys, we had forgotten to bring ANY food or water to this remote location. We had two options: one, wrestle a mountain rodent and harvest cacti or two, starve. Duane, our head pilot, took pity on us. He took off (literally) and moments later landed in a Wendy's parking lot, ordered 5 of everything (sadly, he couldn't use the drive through)...took off again and brought us chicken sandwiches and hamburgers via airmail. Thank you Duane! Flying in your helicopter was a dream come true for us despite the lack of doors. :shy:

Filming location

All the instruments you hear are REAL instruments. We wanted to be authentic about this. The following percussion instruments were used:

Djembe (drum)
Agogo bell (like a cow bell)
Udu (the porcelain vase-looking drum)
Guiro (gourd scraper)
Djabarra (shaker)
Rain stick
Pangi seed shaker (“goat toenails” or Unas)

Credits:
Paradise (Mylo Xyloto) by Coldplay written by Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, And Chris Martin; Copyright Universal Music Mgb Songs And Upala Music, Inc.
Arrangement written and produced by Al van der Beek & Steven Sharp Nelson
Lead vocals: Alex Boye
Cello: Steven Sharp Nelson
Piano: Jon Schmidt
Percussion and backup vocals: Al van der Beek & Steven Sharp Nelson
Recorded, mixed, mastered at TPG Studios by Al van der Beek
Video filmed, edited, & produced by Paul Anderson & Tel Stewart

Thursday, February 23, 2012

I Must Ask . . . Did You Letter in High School?

Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully. –Zig Ziglar

It seems that the general sentiment in the comments last week is that those who have class rings are glad they do, but don't wear them and those who don't have class rings wish they did. After I posted last week, I pulled my ring out of my jewelry box and had a look at it. It is pretty cool, although the little Home Ec insignia is so small you need a microscope to see it. Still, I'm glad I have it.

I had one other thought about High School and then I'm done revisiting. As I was thinking about class rings, I decided that they are sort of a status symbol, right? They have the year you graduated, your personal interests, perhaps your school mascot on them. It was only logical to move on to lettering, which is probably one of the biggest status symbols in High School. What girl didn't want to wear some hunk's letterman's jacket? Or his letterman's sweater, if he didn't have a jacket. Of course, girls could letter too, but the boys didn't line up to wear their sweaters or jackets. It just didn't work that way.

I have a school sweater from High School and I earned the letter on it. I'll bet you can't guess what I lettered in. Keep in mind that I'm an indoors kind of girl and not particularly coordinated before you guess what I lettered in. You'll never guess. So I'll just tell you. Home Ec. Yep. I'm that cool. I'll bet you didn't even know that someone could letter in Home Ec. But I attended enough events, took enough classes and participated in enough leadership positions that I could actually letter in a non-athletic event.

As always, I'm curious about what you all have to say on the subject. Leave me a comment and vote in the poll because today I must ask . . . did you letter in High School? I'm sure I've forgotten a category or two, so make sure to leave a comment if you don't find what you're looking for in the poll. I can't wait to read your comments. That is my favorite part about this poll series. In the meantime, have a great week!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Wardrobe Wednesday: Versatility

Versatile (ˈvɜːsəˌtaɪl) — adj. 1. capable of or adapted for many different uses, skills, etc

As I've watched What Not to Wear, I've learned that part of building a wardrobe is having a few basic pieces that can be worn with many different items of clothing. A good pair of trousers, a nicely tailored jacket or a classic a-line skirt in a neutral color has much more “use value” than an unusual cut or printed/brightly colored version of the same item. These items can be mixed and matched with more eye-catching pieces and give you lots of outfits from a smaller wardrobe. Versatility is the name of the game. This is week four of sharing my little What-Not-to-Wear-distance-learning-on-a-shoe-string-budget experiment.

My mom got me this purple top with the fun little ties at the neckline for my birthday. I'm pretty sure she got it on sale. Like $10-or-less on sale. I love it! {Just FYI, if you get me something cute and you get it on sale, you get bonus points.} It goes great with jeans {the same pair I've shown you the last three weeks. Really, I do have more than one pair of jeans. I promise to show them to you . . . sometime.} and my favorite repurposed red cardigan. For a little bit dressier look, it goes great with the mustard yellow corduroy jacket and chocolate brown trousers.


Purple ¾-Sleeve Top
Birthday gift from my mom :biggrin:

Corduroy Jacket, Christopher & Banks
I've had it this for probably three years and I am not sure how much I paid for it. Knowing me as well as I do, I am positive I got it on sale and I would guess that I paid no more than $25 for it.

Chocolate Brown Trousers, JCPenney
I've had these pants for about three years as well, but I remember how much they were; $22 on clearance.

American Eagle Women's Avery Bow Flat, Payless Shoes
Retail: $19.99
Out-the-door: $7.25

Levi's 512 Dark Wash Bootcut Jeans, Macy's
Retail: $54.00
Out-the-door: $36.32

Red ¾-Sleeve Cardigan
I got this second-hand {for free :biggrin:}. It was a mock twin-set. The front panel, which was a full-length dickie of sorts that posed as a top underneath the cardigan, had a really high neck, but I loved the shape of the cardigan. I cut away the front panel, took off the buttons, dyed it from a sort of coral pink {because I already had a cardigan that color} to red, added some pretty pearl buttons with silver trim and voilá. A cardigan to dress up any outfit. Total cost in dye and buttons: $8.00.

Leap Day Giveaway: A Blog Hop

[Leap Day] is an ephemeral ghost...

A strange amazing day that comes only once every four years. For the rest of the time it does not “exist.”

In mundane terms, it marks a “leap” in time, when the calendar is adjusted to make up for extra seconds accumulated over the preceding three years due to the rotation of the earth. A day of temporal tune up!

But this day holds another secret—it contains one of those truly rare moments of delightful transience and light uncertainty that only exist on the razor edge of things, along a buzzing plane of quantum probability...

A day of unlocked potential.

Will you or won't you? Should you or shouldn't you?

Use this day to do something daring, extraordinary and unlike yourself. Take a chance and shape a different pattern in your personal cloud of probability! –Vera Nazarian

I've had this idea kind of rattling around in my brain for a while of doing something special on Leap Day. I was thinking of saving my 700th post on Leap Day and having a little giveaway. But I couldn't hold out that long so I decided to combine the two and use my 700th post to announce a giveaway, blog hop style, for Leap Day.

Disclaimer: I did a really quick Google to make sure I wasn't stepping on anyone's toes who was already hosting a blog hop giveaway. I wasn't sure if one of those quilty crafty blogs with a zillion followers had already come up with the idea and figured that it would be right up there at the top of the Google list if there was one. I didn't see much going on in the way of Leap Day giveaways out there, so I'm taking the leap {pun totally intended, I kill myself with the puns :rofl:}.

Here's how it works:
• Choose something to give away on Leap Day. Keep it simple. You can make something, give away a bit of your stash, offer a service, buy your favorite gadget to give away or offer something completely non-crafty. Your blog, you choose.
• To participate in the blog hop, your giveaway must start and end on Leap Day {February 29, 2012} in your time zone. You can open it at 10:00 am and close it at 10:00 pm, or go midnight to midnight, or anything in between. Your blog, your rules.
• Your giveaway winner does not have to be announced on Leap Day, but should be notified within a reasonable amount of time.
• Post your giveaway and then link up here. Please remember to link to your specific post {instructions here}. Please also include the Leap Day Giveaway button {code found below} somewhere in your giveaway post.
• The linky will open at noon MST on February 28th and close at 10:00 am MST on March 1st, to allow for people in different time zones to participate.
• If you want to include the linky tool on your giveaway post then others can link up from your blog and it will automatically update in every location the linky is posted. The code is available here or under the linky below. If you choose to add the linky to your post, you MUST include the above rules so that it is fair play for all.
• Consider changing your comment settings to the pop-up window option for faster and easier commenting for all the visitors who'll be stopping by your blog. Instructions can be found here.

I know that Leap Day is still a week away, so what do you do in the meantime? First off, decide what you're going to give away. You can even write your post and schedule it to appear at 12:00 am on the 29th. And second, please spread the word. It will be a very lonely linky party if it is just me giving a little something away. Post about it, add the buttons to your sidebar, mention it to everyone you know, pressure your friends into joining. Just kidding about those last two. Sort of.

I hope you'll join me in what I think will be a really fun day of giveaways!

Leap Day Giveaway


Leap Day Giveaway


Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Continuous Bias Binding: A Start-to-Finish Tutorial

A job done well stays well done forever. –Unknown

Binding a quilt is so much fun. It means that hours and hours of work are about to come together into a finished quilt. I like to do bias binding and a while ago I wrote a tutorial on how to make bias binding in two seams and then you cut—one long continuous strip of bias binding. I've updated the tutorial to include how to sew the double-fold bias binding on, turn corners, join the ends and hand stitch it to the back. There is also a downloadable, printable PDF version available.

I like to make my bias binding 2½” wide, but 2¼” also works nicely for a quilt. The chart at right is a guide for how much fabric you'll need using a square, but you can use a rectangle as well. To get a rough estimate of how much binding any given piece of fabric will produce, divide the length of the fabric by either 2.5 {for 2½” binding} or 2.25 {for 2¼” binding}, multiply that number by the width of your fabric and then divide by 36 to see how many yards. For example, if your fabric is 22” in length and 35” wide and you are making 2½” binding your equation would be:
22 ÷ 2.5 = 8.8
8.8 x 35 = 308
308 ÷ 36 = 8.5 yards

Note: Whether using a square or a rectangle, make sure that the width of your fabric {which would also be the length in the case of a square} is evenly divisible by 3.5 and then add ½” to that measurement in order to avoid waste.

• Begin with a piece of washed, pressed and starched fabric.
• Lay the fabric, right side up, on your cutting mat. Use the grid markings on your ruler to find the 45˚ angle.
• If you are right handed, cut diagonally from the top left corner to the bottom right. If you are left handed, make your diagonal cut from the top right corner to the bottom left.
• Flip one triangle piece over, placing it right sides together with the other triangle, lining up the straight {non-bias cut} edges.
• If you started with a rectangle, make sure the bottom corner lines up. If you started with a square, you need to adjust the fabric for proper sewing. The easiest way to do this is use a ruler and pencil and mark the ¼" seam allowance along the straight {non-bias cut} edge on the wrong side of the fabric. With the fabrics right sides together, slide the fabric so the end of the pencil line matches up with the edge of the fabric opposite it and you have dog ears at both the top and bottom of the seam.
• Sew a ¼” seam and press it open.

• Mark the cutting lines using a ruler and pencil. Begin at the bias cut edge {the edge cut at a 45˚ angle} working left to right for right handers and right to left for left handers and mark the first line 2½” in from the bias edge and continue marking every 2½” inches until you reach the opposite side of your prepared fabric. {Note: if you are making 2¼” binding, adjust your measurements and markings accordingly.}
• When you reach the opposite side of the fabric, cut off any excess fabric that is less than 2½” from the last line you marked. If the width of your fabric was divisible by 3.5 plus ½”, you should not have any left over fabric.

• Mark the ¼” seam intersections on both the upper and lower edges of the fabric.
• Fold the fabric in half right sides together along the width, bringing together the edges where the pencil markings begin and end.
• Slide the bias cut edge to the first marked line.
• Using the pencil markings, line up the bias edge on the fabric closest to you with the pencil line on the opposite edge of the fabric and pin in place.
• Continue lining up the pencil markings at the ¼” seam intersections along the width of the fabric. The fabric should lay flat along the seam you are preparing, but will not lay flat along the fold.
• After each pencil mark has been lined up at the ¼” seam intersection, sew the seam and then press flat.

• This is the fun part. Using a nice pair of scissors cut the binding along the pencil lines. Just keep on cutting — you'll know when to stop. Trust me.
• What you end up with is a lovely piece of bias binding — in two seams!
• Press the binding flat. This is the only pressing I do.

• Trim the triangle off one end of your binding so that it is straight {I forgot this step, but you'll see it later}.
• Fold the binding in half lengthwise, wrong sides together.
• Place the raw edges even with the outer edge of the quilt. Place the start of the binding about the half-way down a long side of the quilt. Leave about 6” from the beginning of the binding and stitch the binding to the quilt using a ¼” seam.

• To make a crisp corner, stop stitching ¼” from the corner.
• Turn the quilt 90˚, so that you are ready to start sewing down the next side. Lift the presser foot and pull the quilt towards you, but leave the thread attached.
• Pull the binding back and away from you, forming a 45˚ angle fold coming in towards the middle of the quilt from the corner.
• Fold the binding towards yourself, covering up the 45˚ fold and lay the binding down, raw edges even with the quilt.
• Start at the corner and continue sewing the binding down.

• When you get back around to where you started the binding, stop stitching about 6” from where the two ends will meet, leaving about 12” between where you started stitching and where you stopped.
• Mark the exact point where the end of the binding meets the start. I just use a pin, but you can mark it however it is most convenient for you.
• If your binding is 2½” wide, mark the binding 2⅜” beyond the point where the binding meets. If your binding is 2¼” mark the binding 2⅛” beyond the point where the binding meets.
• Cut away the excess binding.

• Pull the loose ends of the binding away from the quilt and open them up so right sides are up and wrong sides are down.
• Flip the binding on the right over onto the binding on the left, putting right sides together and rotating the right side binding 90˚ so that it is vertical on the left side binding. The left binding should remain right side up and horizontal, but the corners should match.
• Fold the top right corner of the right side binding down and finger press a 45˚ angle across the binding.
• Mark the 45˚ angle with a pencil.
• Pin the binding back in place and sew along the line.

• Open out the binding to make sure it lays flat and there are no twists in it.
• When you're sure the ends of the binding have been joined correctly, cut away the triangle of fabric on the seam.
• Finger press the seam open.
• Place the binding, right sides together, even with the edge of the quilt and sew the gap closed.

• Fold the binding over the seam allowance and raw edges and wrap it around to the back of the quilt.
• Smooth the binding over and pin the folded edge of the binding so that it covers the seam allowance. To avoid being poked by a pin tuck the ends back into the quilt, keeping the tip of the pin between the layers of binding and quilt.
• When you come to a corner, turn the binding over, extending out past the corner.
• Fold the next side down, creating a mitered corner and pin in place.

• To hand stitch the binding to the back of the quilt, bury your thread in the seam allowance and come up just on the outside of the seam. Push the needle through the binding at the fold and come out ½” away. Put the needle down into the quilt, again, just outside of the seam and push it through ½”. Pull the thread through and continue moving up and down through the binding and the quilt at ½” intervals. When you run out of thread, tie off in the seam allowance and begin again.
• When you come to a corner, make sure to come up through the quilt and out into the corner of the binding that meets the opposite edge.
• Go back down through the binding nearly back from where you came out and push the needle through the quilt ½”.
• Push the needle through the binding back towards the corner, catching the opposite binding in the stitch.
• Go back down through the binding nearly back from where you came out and push the needle through the quilt towards the unstitched edge. Come out of the quilt just beyond where you came out before and continue tacking the quilt down at ¼”—½” intervals until you've gone all the way around.

Enjoy your completed quilt.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Going ‘Round in Circles

Whoever is in a hurry shows that the thing he is about is too big for him. –Lord Chesterfield

I've been doing a little quilting. I've been going ‘round and ‘round in circles. I've got all the little dots done.

And a handful of the big dots. I wanted everything about this quilt to be circles and dots and spots. The quilting inside the spots is inspired by Amber's Dot-to-Dot quilt. Don't look too closely. It is a little bit wonky. The big dots are trickier than the small ones.

I love polka-dots so much that I'm making two polka-dotted quilts. The one above, which I'm calling Seeing Spots, is a gift for a very special aunt. And I'm making one for myself. I had a few minutes to fill, so I worked on the label for that quilt and I can't wait to start putting it together.

I'm off to quilt more circles. My goal is to get this finished by the end of the week and in the mail.

[P.S. Shay, the dohickeys on the pins are Grip Covers {you can only see one in this post in the 2nd photo above}. They don't make basing more accurate, but they do make the pins easier to handle.]