"Turning Twenty" quilt. In the summer I do the hand sewing with the quilt resting on the dining room table, for obvious reasons (too hot to hold all that in my lap). The dark green with little pink rosebuds is the flannel backing for the quilt.
I was happy to find some fabric on the $5.00/meter shelf at the LQS that co-ordinates beautifully with the colours in the quilt. This binding is on the bias because of the stripe in the material. That wouldn't look good at all going straight along the edge. But it's really nice at an angle. Usually on a straight-edged quilt I would cut a binding on the straight grain. I cut it at 2 1/2" and pressed it folded over once, then sewed it with a slightly more than 1/4" seam.
The next step is to sew the binding to the backing of the quilt by hand, using a simple, small slip stitch. This becomes almost all invisible when complete, and gives a nice finish to the quilt.
Once in a while I sew the binding to the back, press it to the front and stitch it down with machine, close to the edge. That's acceptable, and I'll do that when I'm really pressed for time, but this is a much nicer finish.
Here is the finished binding on the front. There's a small square block of this fabric in each corner. You can see a bit of the freehand vine and leaf quilting in the border. That was a suggestion by Elaine Adair a few weeks ago, and I'm very happy with it. It was fun to do.
Just drop the feed dogs, use the "free motion" or "darning" foot, and go to town. I use the Fons and Porter yellow gloves to help me hold onto the quilt and to maneuver it. The center part of the quilt is done with a medium-sized "meander" stitch. Each corner has a four petal flower.
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