Nathanael's Jungle Quilt ~

 

 the backing piece: We couldn't find more than a half yard, 

but it was so sweet with the ladybugs scattered in among the jungle critters~

Yippee, another quilty finish! This is for little Nathanael, who was born in December 2011. Lydia and I collaborated a wall hanging for his room before he was born, and this was put on the back burner for me to find time to quilt. 
 
 I'm glad I waited, it seems I am rising to attempt other quilt stitches. Elaine recently posted a quilt that she did several styles of quilt lines, and the straight line block stitches really seemed to fit this one for a little boy.

I found this print at Fabric.com last year. It was so cute! I chopped up a panel, and blocked the large prints with lime green and water blue, with strips of the coordinating quilt block print.

 


 I knew I wanted a striped binding, but couldn't decide, so, these are the 4 prints used! It worked out to use the one brighter stripe on each of the four sides ~FUN ~  

 This was my first time to use Flourishing Palm's tutorial on binding with machine sewn corners. Larry printed it out....
 




...and it worked perfectly, Linda! I decided since I had a multiple-pieced border, I wanted to avoid getting a seam in the mitered corners. For a first attempt at this way of doing a binding, I'd give it 2 thumbs up.

 A pieced backing on a quilt is a neat way to add interest to the back, as well as use up other pieces from the front. I like when it has the quilt label worked into the backing.



Leftover blocks from the front panel I chopped up. Jerry called this a "pokey-pieced" backing, I told him that really lots of us like to do this!

                    p.s. Happy Birthday, Lydia!

 "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye,
always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:" II Corinthians 9:8

Antique Quilts (That I Wish Were Mine!), and Binding

At quilt class Monday night, the teacher brought some of her quilts to show the different methods of binding, or finishing. These are beauties!

I especially liked the hexagon one, the maker placed black triangles at each point of the hexagon "flower", and it was a great design call.


The Double Wedding Ring was very creative in its design, too. Each solid color of the ring has an appearance in the print next to it. That took some planning!

I was sharing with friends my method of binding. Life is too short for me to do hand stitching. Come on, "Pokey" is a well earned name, I tell ya. :-}

Today was Little Zoe's first birthday. Here's some final pictures of her quilt, and the binding is machine finished.

Even at machine stitched, sewing the binding took about 3 hours to complete. I attach mine like you hand stitch-ers do, but I attach onto the back so that my finished top seams are spot on.

If it gets off a bit in the back, I'm okay. I'm pretty picky, so I make considerations on thread color and the contrast, but usually after the wash and draw up of the quilt it is all good. I only pin at the corners, because I want those neat mitered corners!

But, I've found if I don't pin the long sides I'm able to get my seams on the binding on the back by trying to match the seam line the bobbin shows. Is that clear?

You know, I deeply appreciate the fine hand stitching of others, it just isn't reality for me. I joke that if our ancestor quilting mothers had the wonderful sewing machines we have, we probably wouldn't see the quilting done by hand.

I know, I have friends in class that say I'd get marked down in competition, but hey, most of my work is love driven, not competitive. BTW, I have won two blue ribbons and a third place in county fairs, in machine quilting...just saying it is possible....
Now, I'm only sharing this for those of you who want to try, I am not criticizing anyone else's practices! I find it a joy to sew, but I always have. I hope you keep creating and enjoying it, too.

Oh, and I'm happy to add, the "Our America" quilt raised $275 at auction! Amen!!

Happy Quilting!
Pokey