Terrific Tutorial Tuesday!--Binding/Finishing a Quilt

This week I have a list of tutorials for those of you who use a binding (rather than a facing) on your quilts. I even found one tutorial that shows you how to finish a quilt without a binding or a facing. There are lots of binding tutorials out there. These are the ones I want to keep track of; I'll be adding this post to my "Tutorials" page.

Binding by Machine...
Pat Sloan has a good binding tutorial here. Pat's take on machine binding is a bit different than most. She uses a buttonhole stitch to finish the binding. If you do it correctly, it provides a nice finish on the front AND back. On the post, she has pictures and does a good job of describing her technique. She also has a video and a PDF to explain the process.

Rachel, over at "Stitched in Color," has a binding tutorial that features a zig zag stitch. She has really nice pictures and good explanations. She also has some VERY cute pictures of kittens at the end!

Over at "Prudent Baby," there is a tutorial for bringing the backing fabric to the front to use it as a binding. This particular tutorial shows attaching the binding by machine, but it could also be sewn by hand. 

Binding by Hand...
Julie Herman has several tutorials concerning binding on her blog, "Jaybird Quilts." She answers MANY questions about binding including "What is binding?," "Straight of grain or bias cut?," "How to calculate binding," "How to piece straight of grain binding," "How to piece bias cut binding, and "How to piece using straight seams." She has a "Perfect Binding Tutorial" that explains (and includes pictures on) how to add a "normal" binding. She covers two methods of making bias binding here and how to make a scrappy bias binding here. She also shows you how to deal with binding a curved quilt here.

Over at "Quilting in the Rain," Jera has a tutorial explaining her method of binding a quilt. The binding part of her tutorial isn't much different that the others, but she does have a section showing hand sewing the binding to the back of the quilt. Scroll on down to Part II to find her three videos on how she does the hand stitching.

Rounded Corner Finish...
At "A Quilt is Nice" blog, Nettie shows how to round the corners of your quilt. Nettie says, "The great thing about rounded corners is you don't have to do mitered corners on your binding." You do, however, have to use bias binding. I really like the look of rounded corners, particularly on a baby quilt. If you'd like to check that out, click here. She shows you how to machine bind a rounded corner quilt here.

Finishing a Quilt Without Binding...
Over at "Red Pepper Quilts," you will find a way to finish a quilt without binding or facing it. Some people call this "birthing a quilt." Check that out here.

Add a Fake Piping or Flange Binding...
This tutorial shows you how to make a "fake" piping binding. It looks intriguing to me and is something I definitely will be trying. Check it out here.

If you are interested in learning how to make binding with a flange, Julie Herman of "Jaybird Quilts" has her own version of a flanged binding here.

I hope you are enjoying my Terrific Tutorial Tuesdays. If you have any tutorials you think are great, please let me know. I'd love to include those in a future post. I'd love to hear from you, please leave comments!

Terrific Tutorial Tuesday!--Displaying/Hanging a Quilt

Well, it is "Tutorial Tuesday" again. Each Tuesday I'll be posting tutorials I have found that I really want to be able to find again. I have decided to do this "Tutorial Tuesday" post, because I want to be able to refer back to the tutorials I really like; I want them all in one place. This week, the focus is on displaying/hanging a quilt. I've looked at a lot of tutorials (and there are A LOT) and have come up with a list of posts I personally would refer back to. (Just an FYI...some time in October I'll begin posting some tutorials on making gifts using some of the surface designed fabrics we all have stashed away. SO...if you are interested in making some gifts for Christmas (for example)...stay tuned!)

After finishing a quilted piece, my next focus is how to display the quilt. Generally, I want to put on a hanging sleeve. Susan Brubaker Knapp has a really nice PDF that clearly shows how to make and attach a hanging sleeve. I have a tutorial on this too, but her illustrations are a bit clearer than mine. My tutorial does have something Susan's does not (in Step 6 on my tutorial). I always add a line of basting (which is removed later) into my sleeve to allow for the bulk of the hanging rod. I find that if I don't add this line of basting I have more trouble leaving the room for the rod. I will be using the combination of the two tutorials the next time I make a hanging sleeve for one of my quilts.

The previous instructions are great for hanging a square or rectangular quilt, but what do you do if you have an "odd-shaped" quilt? I found an answer on Daphne Greig's blog. She has a nice tutorial explaining how she figures out where to attach the sleeve so the quilt will hang at the angle she thinks is best. She also has a section at the end on how she makes her hanging sleeves. Again, she doesn't include that line of basting that I find useful. (Both she and Susan allow a bit of extra room for the rod, but I think my method makes it easier to attach the sleeve to the quilt accurately in the end.)

If you are interested in a "gallery hanging" method, take a look at this post on Judys Fiber Art blog. She explains a couple of ways to attach a quilt to foam board as a way to display the quilt. At the end, she also shows how she frames a piece for display. I warn you, this is a LONG post, and the method seems really tedious to me. However, I think I'd like to be able to find the info again should I ever need an alternative to a sleeve. I might use it for a piece that is heavily embellished or a piece that didn't "show" well hanging from a sleeve. I also found her instructions for framing a piece very helpful. Beth Berman over at Sew Sew Art has a great framing tutorial, again, for more of a "gallery hanging" method. She uses Styrofoam insulation board to stabilize the piece. It is a very interesting method that keeps the piece (regardless of size) very light. It is definitely one you should check out.

Now, if you have a small piece or you just want an alternative hanging method (rather than using a sleeve), you need to check out Stitch This! (a Martingale blog). Here you can find a multitude of different methods for hanging a quilt from using fiber tabs to soda pop tabs. This post refers you to several different sites to view these tutorials. There are lots of good ideas here.

A Try at Dye Painting

Over on the Fire blog, the resident artists are painting with thickened dyes. Check it out to see what everyone is doing. Since I'm a resident artist on that site I gave it a try too.

First, let me say that it takes a lot of "stuff" to paint with thickened dyes, and I found that I had less control with the dyes than I have with fabric paint. However, I do like the depth of color I got with the dyes, and I really like that the hand of the fabric isn't changed by adding color. Will I try it again? Hmmm...I don't know.

Before I show you my piece, you should know (and it will become VERY clear) that I can't draw; and I'm not very good at painting. (The other artists on the Fire blog are VERY good. Be sure to check out their work so you can get a true feel for what can be done with this technique.) Here is my piece.

I was inspired by pictures of Chihuly glass. I love the flow of the molten glass, and tried to capture that in this piece. I'm hoping with some quilting and thread painting it will be something I will actually want to finish.

Terrific Tutorial Tuesday!--Burying Thread Ends

I have decided that on Tuesdays I will be posting some of the tutorials I have found to be very helpful to me. Today, I'm listing tutorials on burying thread ends.

First, let me say that I am a "lazy" hand quilter. I HATE to end my line of quilting, so I push it as far as I can. The problem with doing that is that sometimes I end up with hardly enough thread to tie a knot and pull it through to the middle layers. I think what I learned from these methods will definitely help me with this problem. Each of these methods could be used for hand or machine quilting.

I first found this tutorial on Art with a Needle (a blog written by Kathy Loomis). Kathy shows the method she uses and the method Robbie Joy Eklow uses. Both methods make quick work of efficiently burying your threads. A YouTube video by K. Grace Howes (Red Barn Studios) of Robbie's method is on Serendipity and the Art of the Quilt.

If you think you'll find these tutorials useful, let me know by leaving a comment. If you have a tutorial that you find really helpful, share it with me in a comment. I'll check it out, and you may see it featured on a Tutorial Tuesday.

Off the Wall Friday

I FINALLY have the facings on both of my "bird" quilts! Yeah!!!! I still want to do some beading on the "snow" of the second quilt. I AM looking for some help in naming these quilts; I'm terrible at that, and they both need names. The story of the quilts may help. If you didn't read the story behind the making of these quilts, here it is. (If you read that already in a previous post, skip the next paragraph.) Pictures of both quilts are underneath the story.

I'm trying to get two or three pieces finished in time for entry into a SAQA exhibit--"The View from Here: Quilts of the Ohio River Valley. SAQA members from Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio." The theme is "What the artists think of and see when they view their home and surroundings." Pieces must be "quilts" and may be representational or abstract. The work should relate to our local environment or what we see from where we live, our home, backyard, city, or town. I have given this a lot of thought and have come to the conclusion that one of my favorite things to do when I'm home (besides working on my artwork) is looking at the view out my window into my backyard to watch the birds at my bird feeder. I particularly like to watch the birds in the wintertime when there is a nice sheet of snow on the ground. I like the stark contrast between the whiteness of the snow and the color of the birds. One particular winter day, ALL the birds on the ground were "those ugly" blackbirds EXCEPT for one beautiful red cardinal. I was really aggravated that the "ugly" blackbirds were dominating the bird feeders, eating up all my seed, and weren't even pretty to look at. After I had ranted and raved, I got to feeling bad about maligning the blackbirds. I realized that they need to eat too, and they can't help the fact that they aren't "pretty." That revelation led me to think about this on a larger scale. People who aren't considered "pretty" by society often have needs that aren't met--simply because of their appearance. We all can't be pretty.

Be sure to click on the pictures to get a closer look. I think you'll be able to see the beads if you click on the detail picture of Quilt 1.

Quilt 1

 Detail of Quilt 1

 Quilt 2

 Detail of Quilt 2

If you have any name suggestions, please leave them in a comment or email me privately. (I DO LOVE comments!)

I have made a little progress on my hexagon English paper piecing project.

Last week's picture

This week's update

It is harder now to see the progress, because each "round" takes more hexagons! Last week (in a comment) I had someone ask me what size this piece measures. Well, at its longest point it now measures 18". Whew, this will be a LONG process. At least, for now, I'm still enjoying it.

Be sure to check out all the other updates to Off the Wall Friday on Nina-Marie's blog. You can click on the "Off the Wall" badge on the right-hand side of this page to get to that site.

New Purchase and Internet Company Recommendation

I recently purchased an old fashioned clothes drying rack from a great old hardware store in town. I use this rack in my studio for a variety of things. Here you can see it holding some strips of fabric I have cut for a facing (and don't want to lose) and some silk sari strips that I'm hoping will inspire me.

I also use it to hold painted and/or dyed fabrics that need to dry, strips for strip piecing and binding, and wet soda ash soaked fabric that needs to dry. I REALLY have found this to be a very handy tool for my studio.

As for the recommendation, I think it is hard to know which companies on the Internet are good companies to order from. I write letters/emails when my service hasn't been great, so I also like to pass the word along when I have had GREAT service. I have to mention a company that has been WONDERFUL to me. The company name is Red Panda Beads owned by Betsy Ramsey. I recently made an order for a few beads and some FireLine braided bead thread. Right away, Betsy emailed me to tell me that because of the recent holiday (Labor Day) it might take a little longer than usual to receive my package. (I might add here...I have always received my orders from Red Panda in a very timely manner.) I emailed right back and told her I was in a rush because of an entry deadline. Betsy immediately emailed me back thanking me for the info and arranging to rush my order to me by priority mail (with no additional shipping charge). WOW, and thank you Betsy! Red Panda Beads is one of those GOOD Internet companies. She has a wide variety of quality products at good prices, and her customer service is top notch. If you are in the market for ANY beading supplies, check out her website at Red Panda Beads. (I have not been enticed, in any way, to endorse this website. I'm just one happy customer.)