DWR Progress: Binding

Yay! I'm finished the quilting on the Double Wedding Ring! I spread it out on the bed and it looks amazing. The small stippling really made the feathers pop and the quilting looks so even and balanced. I don't want to show you until I have it totally done.

I made the bias binding using the continuous tube method. It is a brilliant way of making bias binding and you get a lot of length already joined. However, I still find it confusing and awkward and it was especially cumbersome working with such a large starting square of 40". I had a hard time even cutting a square that big and wasn't sure I was even doing it all right but I ended up with a big pile of binding and it feels kind of stretchy so I guess that will work! It took me a while to cut the tube with scissors (of course, you can't use a rotary cutter for this method) and I think my Ginghers were so sharp I couldn't keep the cut on the line perfectly straight (the sharp blade was slicing before I could even engage the scissor action!). I found the Quilty video below very helpful while sewing the weird seams of the tube. Another great tip from one of my other quilting bible books is to put the tube around the end of an ironing board before cutting. It makes it easier (and prevents accidentally cutting through the bottom layer) to cut along the lines with the scissors.

It is going to take me a while to even sew the binding on the scallops since I will do one at a time, as recommended by Mimi Dietrich in the amazing Craftsy class Finishing Schools: Edges & Bindings, which has been SO helpful with all this. I've been re-watching the segment on my i-pad, gearing up for the process. Hand-stitching the binding to the back of the quilt will probably take me forever since I'm pretty slow and the quilt is SO big and heavy. Speaking of which, I'm pretty sure there is no way I will ever be able to wash it. The quilt weighs about 8 pounds (lighter than I thought...it sure feels like more when trying to move it under the machine needle!) but it would be a lot more when wet. I'm really scared to put it in a machine. I figured I would test it out with the 'quilt'/comforter (p.o.s. from the store, lol) that's currently on my bed and see how that fares first.

I trimmed up the sides of the quilt sandwich but didn't cut right to the scallops yet. I want to sew the binding on first (because the curved edges will be more stable) and then trim afterwards. Adhering to my tidy workshop resolution, I've already cut and sandwiched the scraps for free-motion warm-up samples and tension testers. I think that's a great use of would-be trash and I don't have to stop and make a new sandwich every time before I quilt. Saves time, landfill, and good fabric! 

Comments

[Maureen]

I've washed my king size down comforter in my home machine a few times. My machine is a top loader with no agitator. For the down, I put (clean) tennis balls in the dryer to re-fluff it.