Binding anyone???

I finally settled on putting the binding on my sample quilting wall hanging.

And I decided to use the small binding tool from Missouri Star Quilt Co.  It uses a 2" wide strip instead of 2 1/2" wide strip.

Anyone catch what's wrong in this picture?? To bad I didn't before making that first cut.... (Insert giggle here).

You guessed it...I automatically cut the first strip at 2 1/2".  Sometimes old habits are hard to break!!

Ok, so I trimmed that strip down and I'm off ....

The way I connect my binding strips is I iron one end of my strip at a 45 degree angle.  That gives me my sewing line.


Side story.... (what would my blog be if I didn't go off on another tangent for a moment :)  )

So as you can see for the above picture...I'm ready to sew, step on my foot pedal and it starts sewing backwards.

 I reposition my material, step on pedal and it goes backwards....after scratching my head, contemplating whether or not I forgot how to sew or not, I am puzzled...what the heck.  

My machine has been packed since my last trip (it worked fine then), what could be wrong... a feather weight only does a straight stitch, so no buttons ...what the heck.  I even checked to see if my plug was in upside down....like that could happen or would make it sew backwards...but hey...I was desperate!!


Finally I noticed something........

Must of happened when I put it away in the case....the lever got pushed all the way to the top.   Well for those who don't know (please someone leave a comment telling I'm not alone in the boat and they didn't know their feather weight had reverse)  if the lever is all the way up...it sews in reverse!!

Ok...now that the mystery was solved....I'm back in business.  All strips attached and ironed in half- wrong sides together.  For this tool, you need a 6" tail and an 6" opening.

 

I pin my binding to the quilt and then place a pin 6" away, so I know where to stop sewing.  I make sure that the joined binding seams will not end in the corners by starting off center and roughly laying the binding around the quilt.  If it looks like  seam is going to hit a corner, I adjust my starting point.

I start sewing stopping 1/4" from the corner.  Remember this tool....reminds me of home ec...lol  I was never a great clothes sewer....but I never got rid of this tool either...I guess that's a quirk for another post some day.

Then you fold the binding straight up, then straight down so that you have a mitered corner.  Continue sewing, repeating at each corner and making sure to stop sewing at the pin.

Take the quilt to the cutting table and butt the ruler under the binding where you stopped sewing

Mark the binding where the line is on the tool.

Lay the ruler on top of the binding strip, lining the tool line on the marked line and cut off excess with the rotary cutter (making sure the quilt is out of the way!!)

go to the other side, turning the tool 90 degrees so that the flat end of the tool is butt up against where you stopped sewing and mark on the line.

On this side, you line the edge of the tool with the marked line on the binding and trim using a rotary cutter.

Placing right sides together, you pin the binding together and sew them together.

Take to the iron board and iron you binding flat.

Lastly, sew the rest of the binding down to the quilt........TA DA!!!!!!!  Binding is ready to hand sew to the back and it lays flat!!   THANKS Missouri Star Quilt Co for coming up with a tool that makes binding easy to do for this quilter!!!

Hope this took some of the mystery out of doing binding!!  Don't forget.... Missouri Star Quilt Co. has a tutorial on YouTube for the 2 1/2" binding tool.

Hexie update.....

So with the left over binding fabric....I thought.....

Yup you guessed it....I cut 6 2" squares and am going to make a hexie flower!!

Here's what I got done so far...I'm all caught up to having "1 done a day" and I just have to sew them together....


Happy Easter everyone!!


Happy Sewing!!


Jill