So what was your cringe worthy quilt story? We all were beginners and didn't know any better. Obviously when I began it was assumed that everyone immediately knew how to do binding. And that's why this happened...
12.03.2013
Binding Rewind
Do you ever look back at some of your first quilts and just cringe? It just happened to me. Now I know that I also looked back to see how far I have come with my skills, but this binding was just embarassing.
Yes, that is white thread stitched about an inch apart... Needless to say, thats been my project to fix. It took less than a half hour to rip out the old stitching and I'm well on my way to fixing the issue.
So what was your cringe worthy quilt story? We all were beginners and didn't know any better. Obviously when I began it was assumed that everyone immediately knew how to do binding. And that's why this happened...
So what was your cringe worthy quilt story? We all were beginners and didn't know any better. Obviously when I began it was assumed that everyone immediately knew how to do binding. And that's why this happened...
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Hi Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteWell my cringing story is this! Last Christmas I was rushing to get a quilt stitch in the ditch as it was suppose to be a christmas present. My first mistake was having applique in the centre of the quilt too close together which made stitching in the ditch extremely difficult. The second problem was choosing a backing fabric that was of a inferior quality of fabric compared to the front of the quilt as well as being dark green . The third problem was trying to stitch in the ditch with a cream thread on the top and a green thread on the bottom. The fourth I could not get my tension right either. My needle I had checked was correct for the thread size. However ,I was getting green thread from the bottom coming to the top of the quilt every so often. No matter what I did the end result was terrible. I had stitch in the ditch almost 60% of my quilt. Frustrated and totally dissatisfied with my job I through the quilt into the corner for over eight months. Then after several months I decided I was not going to let this quilt beat me. I purchased a new backing fabric cream in colour and suitable quality. I enrolled in a local quilting group which had a teacher after a while I told her of my disaster and she gave me number of pointers. So far we have repinned my quilt although their are small squares where the new applique flowers will go as a feature later. I will first do the stitching in the ditch first using Aurifl thread cream top, bottom and will plan to use a stitch size 3 to 3.5 on my Pfaff QE 4. My needle will be a Superior Titanium 80/12. Of course I will do an extensive practise piece with batting into to ensure that eveything is going as I plan it. I would be grateful to hear from you if you have anything else to add before actually restart my quilt this time around as I can not afford to make any more mistakes. Julie Beard www.julie714@adam.com.au
I was very fortunate to be taught the correct way to put binding on with my very first quilt. No one told me about how far the hand stitching needed to be, I just figured it needed to be relative close together to keep it on there, so my stitches were about 1/4". I really feel sorry for the longarm quilter who quilted my first 4 quilts - I was so clueless!! I'm sure there was lots of "quilt that out" going on...especially one that was stars done with HSTs from charm squares...each charm square cut into triangles and sewn together AND I did a medallion back of that lovely block enlarged on the backing. The backing on that one was exactly the same size as the quilt front (I didn't know she needed to pin the backing on the leaders and needed more fabric) - she gave it back to me asking me to add material to the back of this lovely green back and I put on some crummy lavender junk I had laying around. Mercy!!! She got it quilted with no lavender showing on the back of the quilt - miracle worker. Of course, now that I have my own longarm and quilt for others, I know the hell I put her through! Bless her heart, she never complained or said anything about it.
ReplyDeleteUntil last year I whipstitched my binding to the back of the quilt. Now that I use the ladder stitch I can't help but wonder what people say when they see the binding on my first 50 or so quilts. I have a handful of quilts at home and when I look at how I sewed down the binding to the back I cringe. I am hoping that my hand quilting would detract from the ugly whipstitch on the binding.
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