A Lovely Year of Finishes

I am linking up the first of my Just Three goals to the Flickr group “A Lovely Year of Finishes.”  I just finished sewing the binding on this morning and am picking up my oldest from school a little early to head to the park for a photo shoot this afternoon (don’t tell her teacher!).

I thought I’d show a few photos of my machine binding process. The first few I bound by machine didn’t come out perfect, but just like with fmq, my machine binding skills get better and better with practice.

I start by just stitching all the way around the perimeter of the quilt about 1/8 from the edge.  It is important to do this while your extra batting and batting are still intact!!!!!!!!  If you try to stitch after you’ve cut it off, you’ll get all kinds of puckers and pulls.  I learned this the hard way.

This little one helped with the binding process.  Just so you know, I cut my binding 2.75” wide.  I can’t seem to get things to line up properly when it’s 2.5”.

Love those Wonder Clips!  I like to just clip the binding onto the back and then mark my 1/4 inch stopping point with a straight pin.  I just sew right up to it and then backstitch.

Here’s what the back looks like after I use a zig-zag stitch to attach the binding on the front. 

The zig-zag stitch is nearly perfectly straight along the edge of the binding.  I find that as long as I don’t stop and start stitching too much or pull on the binding as I wrap it over, the stitches don’t arc.

Here’s what a corner looks like. These stitches are not coming out in the wash!

My first finish of 2013 is this quilt I designed for a Quilt Along that will start later this month.  It’s called “Easy as Pie” and the name says it all!  The pattern uses exactly every piece of a layer cake, has relatively little cutting, and comes together fast!