2 finishes and a binding tutorial

This is for those fo you who struggle with connecting the ends of your binding and making a neat, flat seam.
 I have taught the binding method I use (the one pin method) and many quilters are amazed at how simple it is. The binding comes out perfect every time! My thanks to Pat Apel, who taught me this method in a class long, long ago.
 I took some pictures during the joining process, and here they are!
Make your binding using 2 1/4 inch wide strips. Join them with a mitered seam and fold in half lengthwise, pressing as you work. 

 Leave a 7 or 8 inch tail before you begin sewing, then sew it on lining up the edge of the quilt with the raw edges of the binding. The beginning is the leading edge, and the other end is the following edge. Sew your binding to the quilt using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Put in a pin in the quilt edge 7 inches from the start of the binding. Sew on the binding up to the pin, and reverse sew to secure it. 

Reverse sewing done, take the quilt from the machine and trim the thread. Remove the pin, and keep it handy for the next procedure.

It will look like this. The leading edge is on the right, and the following edge is on the left. Lay the edge of the quilt flat on your table so you can manipulate these pieces.

With the leading edge underneath, lay the following edge on top of it, so you can still see the side of the leading edge .

Loop the following edge around, open up the fold in the binding, and lay the unfolded end on top of the following edge. Line up the side of the unfolded bit with the beginning of the leading edge of the binding. (you can see the beginning just peeking out)

Put a pin in at the other edge of the unfolded binding end, catching only the following edge of the binding.

Cut the following edge of the binding 1/8 inch above the pin. otherwise, cut the pinned part off.

Like this. The pinned part is the excess binding. Take out the pin.

Fold the quilt a bit to bring the leading and following edges closer together. This helps with the manipulation of the binding and the sewing of the two ends. Open out the following edge, being careful not to twist it, and lay it flat on the table with the right side up.

Lay the leading edge out, being careful not to twist it, wrong side up, and fold the top right corner down to the side of the strip to form a triangle at the end of the binding. Finger press the fold.

When you open up the end, it will look like this. The fold should be visible enough to sew on. If not, run a contrasting pencil line along this fold.

Line up the top and right side edges of the folded end with the following edge strip.

Move this to the sewing position, and sew on the fold line, from corner to corner.

Ta da! They are sewn.

Before you trim the seam allowance, remove the pin to release the side of the quilt and make sure it fits and nothing is twisted. Shout Eureka!!, because it should fit perfectly along the edge of the quilt. Congratulations! The hard part is done. Trim the seam allowance to 1/4 inch.

Here is the binding, fitting perfectly to the edge of the quilt.

Finger press the seam open.

Refold the binding and put the pin in between the ends of the new seam to hold it flat against the side of the quilt.

Starting where you left off, sew the remainder of the binding down.

The seam looks just like the joins in the binding, lays flat, and fits perfectly.

Once folded over the quilt's raw edge, it is impossible to find the join. It looks just like the other binding seams.

Tee shirt quilt finished and ready to send!

A footnote

The day is done and my lip still hurts. Tomorrow, we go Christmas shopping. Here's what transpired during the day. We'll be back later with more Wazoo stories.

Mr Wazoo helped me out today by quilting this QOV.

Panto: Square Spiral

He did a good job, and now I only have one more to do.

I am working on this beautiful log cabin quilt on the APQS. The pattern is complicated, so it took all day to get three quarters done. Maybe because the quilt is 105x105, too!

While that was going on, I did the stitch in the ditch on this custom quilt. The 9 patch quilting is almost done, then I'll start the stars and wide open spaces. 

I stopped quilting at 5:30 and made the binding for the big tee shirt quilt. 

I hope to get it on the quilt on Friday.

Here is a peek at the lovely pattern.

Oh boy!! Time for shopping!! See you all later.

Earthquake?!

I have been very under the weather the last few days, fighting a cold sore on my lower lip that has affected my trigeminal nerve and caused excruciating pain in the left side of my face, teeth and ear. Who would guess something so small could bring me down? I would! So, yesterday, I didn't accomplish anything. I rested and put medicine on the sore, hoping it would go away. No dice. I went to bed at 10:30 after taking a sturdy dose of pain medicine.
At 4:15 this morning, I was awakened by the bed trembling like a tumble dryer with a heavy load. What the heck?! It lasted about 20 seconds, then stopped. I laid awake wondering what it was, thinking about the improbability of an earthquake. Yup! Earthquake! Somewhere north of us (Tennessee?) there was a 4.4 magnitude earthquake! Wow. Now, I can say we have been through a hurricane and an earthquake. Ha! Mr Wazoo snored through it.
Speaking of the man...he quilted yesterday, and finished this starry quilt. It has glittery background that's hard to see in photos, but made it even more celestial looking.

The colors on the black sparkly background made for a striking quilt.

Panto: Quirky

Gray skies on the back

This morning I awoke early (going to bed at 10:30 will do that) and got to enjoy a beautiful sunrise. Maybe it will be a better day here at Wazoo. I have two quilts on the machines, and more in the wings. I need to get busy!

I wish you could have seen how saturated this was. The photo doesn't capture the intensity of the colors.

The sky quickly changed to fire and lavender

The entire horizon was beautiful

Sun's up!! Time to get to work!

Rainy weather work days

Rain, rain, and more rain. There was even some snow this morning, but it melted by noon. The raw, cold weather was perfect for some quilting, so that's what we did. Big and small, the quilts are slowly going out the door, reducing the queue and the stress.

This style quilt is called The Thin Blue Line. Its made for police officers. I had never heard of it, so I looked it up on Google images. There are hundreds of them pictured there!
The quilter's son is a policeman and will get this for Christmas!

The blocks are all varieties of gray fabrics, with a line of blue.
Panto: Woven Wind

The backing is also gray.

This snowman quilt was made by the daughter of the previous customer.

I quilted swirls and holly. She didn't want quilting on the snowman.

The stars got this treatment.

The backing is a black and white print.

Another quilter made this tee shirt quilt for her firefighter son.

The panto, Hotrod, looks like flames!

transportation themed backing.

I quilted this tee shirt quilt I made last month for a Texas customer.
Tomorrow, I'll get the binding on.

The quilt has an all over meander quilting pattern.

The blue backing has two columns of tee shirts!

The same Texas customer made this quilt.
I love bow-tie quilts!

Panto: Yodel, is perfect for the geometric look of the quilt.

The backing is a bright red surprise print of poppies.

I got a call from a lady last Friday who was looking for someone to finish a quilt for her great- granddaughter. She had been working on the quilt for a year, and just couldn't finish the quilting and binding. She wanted to have the quilt finished for a Christmas gift. Mr Wazoo drove to town and picked the quilt up, and I set to work on Sunday. I finished it up with binding and a label, then drove it back to the customer. She is a delightful 91 year old who had an accident a year ago, breaking her hip and ankle. After surgeries and rehab, she is becoming more mobile, but still has some weakness. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with her and hope she continues to recover and make more quilts! Her embroidery is lovely, and I'm sure her little great-granddaughter will love the quilt.

Sun Bonnet Sue blocks, hand embroidered.

The customer had hand quilted around all the blocks, so I just did the sashing and borders.

I outlined the Sues and attached the label.

Grammy Doris with her quilt!