Since moving into our temporary apartment (If you haven’t heard, we are moving from Houston to St. Louis.), I haven’t been able to get my sewing machine out at all. But I have been working on my pickledish quilt.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to machine or hand stitch it, but the move kind of decided for me. I knew I would have a nice chunk of time to do hand work.
Instead of basting the quilt with my normal pin basting method, I decided to have my friend Pam baste it on her long-arm machine using water soluble thread. Once I’m finished quilting and binding it, I will soak it in the washer and (hopefully) all the basting stitches will dissolve. Or something like that!
So these pictures are deceptive because you can see the meandering basting stitches. But if you look carefully you may see my hand quilted stitches in some pictures. Can you see them in this picture?
I wasn’t sure I had the skills to bind this quilt because of the crazy inside corners. And since the quilt is so well basted, I decided to bind the quilt before I invested too much hand quilting.
Yikes!
Double Yikes!
As with a regular inside corner, I snipped the inside corner to 1/4” to better manipulate the pivot. With a regular inside corner, you can pull the edges straight when you snip the corner. But not with this quilt. Needless to say, it took some wrestling.
Happily it worked pretty well. Here’s a preview of how the corner will look when it’s finished.
Yah! I finished the binding. This is probably the longest binding I’ve ever attached by hand. Here’s a preview of how the quilt will look all finished (this picture still has the basting stitches!).
Ok, now I can get back to hand quilting this beauty without worrying if I’ll be able to bind it. I was really kinda nervous; but I’d gotten this far I was going to bind it one way or another!
There’s nothing like hand quilting under a snug quilt in cooler weather. And I cannot tell you how much I love floppy, curved edges on quilts. Love it!
Thanks for reading!
For more creative borders and edges for your next finish read our 25 Creative Ways to Bind your Quilt post.
wow!!!!!
This is gorgeous and will be an heirloom for many years to come! Great fabric choices- I especially love the use of a print for the background.
This looks great. Congrats on your binding and your wrestling.
So, so, so beautiful. I'm just ALWAYS so impressed by you! Miss you, friend 🙂
Your quilt is beautiful, I love the DS fabrics and what an excellent binding!Water soluble thread…never heard of it…seems like a good idea… Thanks for sharing this!
Wow! I love how you tamed the beast! Super sweet effect to have those scalloped edges. You inspire me.
I've used water soluble thread for basting, and I've had a quilt basted by longarm — but my longarmer wouldn't use the water soluble thread (she did not want to fiddle with her tension settings). It's a great idea, though.
Your quilt is looking great. I'm impressed with your inside corners!
It looks so good Becca!