HQAL and Binding Status Post Number 670!!! 12 March 2023

Greetings to everyone. I will be so happy when winter gets here this year – we have not had one for 3 years. Yesterday it was 96-98 and today it will be in the 70’s. This week will be much cooler and more fun to walk in, but then we just HAD to go to DST! UGH. I have made a full 7 days of walking! YEA – It has been awhile since I did not have to take a day off! Maybe I can continue the steady daily walk. I did hear that La Niña died! YEA Come on down El Niño and send us lots of rain!

I spent a few hours on my Moda Holiday SAL embroidery project this week. Here is where I was on 18 Dec 2022! (not much to see).

Here is where I finished last night. WOW wonder what happened that caused me to be so slow on the project! LOL

Now to a “little” update on the start of the 10 quilts that need trimming, binding, then sewing the binding on the quilt for hand stitching,

I intended to start adding the binding on Irish Mist around 27 February and my GOAL (remind me to never make goals again) was to be finished with the 10 quilts that needed bindings by 14 March 2023 (which is not the Ides of March it is the 15th)!

Well, needless to say Unforeseen Requirements caused a delay (stupid people in Doctor’s office.) I did not get to start on the binding for Irish Mist on Tuesday (7 March). When I did start, I had this nutty idea to do bias binding. That was the beginning of the end of ever thinking I would reach my 14/15 March imposed deadline (stupid me).Ah ready to get this one out of the way!

Nice set up – you would think!

I started stitching and had nothing but problems with the fabric slipping and the Sapphire not wanting to function correctly with the walking foot. I believe I finished it Thursday afternoon. It took me about 3 1/2 hours to do it, but all along for this quilt, I had a FEELING that things were not well with it and decided to wait until Friday morning to sew the ends together.

On Friday morning I started to sew the ends together and had a total disaster on my hands. I have a way to close the binding at the ends and when I was sewing a basting stitch on the one end, the Sapphire decided to eat that piece up! I literally threw the quilt on the floor never wanting to see it again!

One of the issues was trying to sew black fabric with black thread and trying to see what I was doing along with the quilt and binding slipping, causing me to not have a consistent 1/4″ seam allowance.

Clay came to my rescue as he always does, and we switched back to the D1 Husqvarna that had just been serviced with new feed dogs. He cut a piece of plastic and added special tape and BOOM, problem resolved with slipping fabric that prevented me from doing a straight 1/4″ seam allowance. It is a great guide for binding.

This quilt has had problems from the beginning when I had a problem with the star points, so I remade the quilt. This is a Twice Made quilt and I guess the binding was not going to be happy until I did it twice! UGH. On Friday I ripped the entire binding off, did a stay stitch around the quilt to prevent further problems, cut new binding from the same crummy black batik but this time I did WOF and cut my strips at 2 1/8″ I pressed the binding and was ready to go on Saturday morning to try again!

It was a success with the changes I made (and Clay’s). It took me over 2 hours to sew the binding, but this time the problems that I had experienced were not repeated and it is now ready for hand work. Preparing quilts for Show require more time and effort to get things perfect, but this was a total overkill time wise for me. Taking 3 days was not fun, but I do believe that the next 9 plus 3 more quilts will be so much easier to sew the binding on.

By now you are probably asking yourself if I am a real nut case worrying about the binding being so perfect. Well, this quilt and 3 others are entered into the Hill Country Quilters Guild Quilt Show in May. They are located in Kerrville, Texas. One of the first things I learned in 2005 when I started entering shows was how to do the bindings! The very first thing a Judge looks for is if the binding is consistent in size front and back, and filled in with the batting. They love to grab that binding and run their hand down the side to check it out. Since then I have always been particular with any binding that I do on a quilt,

I know how importing the binding is because I have scribed for Judges in the past and there have been some nice quilts that had rippled binding or binding that was not consistently full that have lost a chance to place.

Next on the list to work on is going to be Alexander Bean Pot. He is a quilt that is cotton – not batiks – and I should be able to breeze through it today with no problems. (whoops there I go again -making a goal!)

Well, have a wonderful week and Sunday and happy stitching! Maybe this week will be the week I can accomplish a lot more that I have done since the end of February 2023!

Hugs,

Nanette

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Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away;  Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Slow Sunday Stitching  Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party; Design Wall Monday, Scrap Happy Days, Quilting Patch Linky Party, To Do Tuesdays

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.
Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, Connie