Gamelan Quilt Completed

Remember that pink and green quilt that I used to demonstrate self-binding back in April? The one based on the Gamelan pattern from Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr's book The Modern Quilt Workshop: Patterns, Techniques, and Designs from the Funquilts Studio? Well I finally mailed it to its intended owner, so I can finally post more pictures of it. Clearly I was battling the shadows on my porch when I took these, but you get the idea. And I think the low angle of the sun really shows off all the quilting, which was a key part of this experience.

Pretty much every technique I used on this quilt is a first for me - piecing circles, free-motion machine quilting, quilting from the back, self-binding. I learned a lot making it. I used the Bernina Stitch Regulator to free-motion machine quilt.

First, I quilted from the back following the outlines of the large scale print (the pink fabric you can see in the self-binding pictures). I didn't quilt-from the back in the area where the pieced circles were on the front.

I quilted from the front for the circles, following the designs created by piecing symmetrical patterns together. All of the fabric is from Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr's fabric line except for the yellow print which is from Luana Rubin's Joie De Vivre line. Ironically, Rubin's symmetrical print lined up more easily than the two Ringle & Kerr prints, which were designed specifically for use in this pattern. I'm a huge fan of Ringle & Kerr's 813-411, the green small scale print that I used as the background on the top. You can piece the heck out of it and not see a single seam line.

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Underground Railroad Doll Quilt Completed

I finally bound the Underground Railroad Doll Quilt. I used a Bernina Binder Attachment Accessory #84 and Foot #94. Well, technically, I borrowed my friend Bridget's and hers are a bit older and don't look exactly like the ones Bernina currently sells, but it's the same idea. Basically the accessory and attachment fold a strip of fabric as you sew it around the edge of the quilt, ostensibly sewing through the front and back of the binding at the same time. Bridget isn't a fan of using this on a quilt with corners; she finds it much easier on quilts with rounded corners. But taking the information I gleaned from a demonstration of Martelli's Kwik Bind Sytem at the Glendale Quilt Show, I thought I did a pretty good job on my corners for a first try.
This is the part where the end of the binding overlapped the beginning. I didn't try to do anything to fancy, just folded over the tail, lapped it, and sewed right over it. I hand stitched closed the folded over end along with the miters in all the corners.
I wouldn't say this results in contest entry worthy binding. But it certainly did a sufficient job for charity quilts or, with a little practice, gift quilts for non-quilt snobs. It was certainly faster and less time consuming than a traditional binding. Probably took about the same amount of time as self-binding, and might result in a more durable binding since you can use bias strips.
I don't know if I'll be shelling out the big bucks for a binding attachment set up any time soon, but I will certainly borrow Bridget's again.

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