Whew. After a weekend of non-stop sewing (who would have thought that my little sewing machine would hold up!), I've got the quilting done and the binding on. All I have left to do is sew the back edge of the binding down and its off to the post office!
This is only the second quilt I've ever worked on, and the first one I've done by machine, so there was a lot of learning going on in this process. I learned that the way I basted my hand-pieced quilt wasn't quite tight enough for the sewing machine - I kept getting bumps and ripples on the top layer until I gave up and just pulled out all the basting thread and pinned it as I went along. The next time around I will also sew all in one direction first - in an attempt to even out the top layer as it was quilted, I did some alternating horizontal and vertical rows, which was a miserable failure (an excuse to buy a new seam ripper!). I also perfected my technique for tightly rolling the sides of the quilt so I could get the needle to reach the middle rows.
I went with nostalgia when picking the binding. I have vague memories from childhood of a yellow blanket with traditional satin ribbon binding, and so when I saw it in the store I had to grab it. I probably could have found some higher quality ribbon, though. Its a little see-through on the back.
The only way I know to bind a quilt, thanks to my class, ends with me hand-appliqueing the last edge down. How ironic that it will take me as long to finish the final step as it did to quilt the entire thing! Are there any binding tutorials out there that have better alternatives?
I love the satin binding! I always make my mom make my quilts with satin binding...it helps me sleep! :>
Looks great. I love the fabrics you chose. I'm working on a baby quilt myself -- all in pinks and it's been really fun. I'll have to try satin binging sometime too, it reminds me a lot of blankets I used to have when I was a child as well.