Monday, July 22, 2013

BINDINGS... Hand or Machine applied?

Do you finish your bindings by hand or by machine after applying them to the front?  I've never had good luck stitching them down by machine! Perhaps due to technique? Perhaps it's because I find it relaxing to make the last stitches by hand... it gives me time to reflect on the process of this particular quilt... time to rejoice in its completion!

I had to shop for fabric for the Rotaplast quilt bindings! I also needed black fabric to bind Smokey River!



These bindings will be my evening work this week. That Smokey River is a HEAVY & LARGE quilt! I'll need to rest it on a table while I work.

While at the store (Candy's Quiltworks) looking for suitable fabric for the bindings, I learned there was a sale on Christmas, Fall and Halloween fabrics! I've been looking for similar fabrics to a quilt I made in 1999 I called Paws for Santa.

  

I found this pattern in a quilting magazine (? which one) and just had to make it! It measures 98"x98". The blocks are 14" finished and I labelled them Mama Bear and Baby Bear blocks.


I replaced 4 Mama Bear blocks in the center with the Old World Santas that came as a panel fabric purchased years before. I liked the panel so much I decided to get a second one just in case I needed more.


The pictures really don't do it justice! This quilt sparkled! The colors were bright and the edges of the Santas were worked in gold.


Can you tell these have been stored for well over a decade? They're ready to be ironed-on to a background fabric!

The quilt was hand-quilted by St Ann's ACW in Westcock, NB in October 1999 and was exhibited at the Lupin Quilt Fair in July 2000. It was not for sale but someone liked it so much that they wanted to buy it! I spent a lot of time on this quilt and I thought my price was high enough to discourage the purchase! But they never balked at the price so off it went to them! It was and remains the ONLY quilt I ever sold! I hate parting with my quilts but I am quick to make them for gifting. This quilt was not meant for anyone but myself so I felt and still feel its loss... I never got to display it at Christmas!

So now I'm on a mission to recreate it! But first I want to find fabrics that come close to those I used if possible.


These are Cranston Prints and the colors work really well with the colors of the Santas. It would be hard to find the same fabrics; I've been looking for so long and I don't have enough of any of these three. The background fabrics aren't a problem.

So off to that sale I go today... I'll know when I see the right combination! Don't you just love to pull fabrics together for a new project? HOW INVIGORATING!!! And on a MONDAY too!!!

Toodles!

Lorette









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