Oh, Happy Day!

Yesterday I spent most of the day machine quilting and I'm so excited that I did all the quilting on Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll - a mystery quilt from Bonnie K Hunter that I started back when Bonnie presented the mystery in November 2010.  The pattern is now in her newest book, String Fling.

Haha!  I'm such a tease. :)  I'll show the front once the binding is tacked down.

I was planning to stop for the evening after that, but then Bonnie posted that she was going to turn on her quilt cam and attach binding to a quilt she'd quilted yesterday.  It was meant to be...so back to work I went and got my binding attached and it's now ready to hand-tack down!  I listened to her on quilt cam and watched occasionally until my phone died.  It was fun sewing "with Bonnie".

A few years ago Reeze taught me a great binding tip.  Maybe you've heard this before, but in case it's new to you like it was to me, here it is.

Once the binding is attached, press it out away from the quilt top.

There's a sneak peak of the front for you! lol

Now turn the quilt over and press the binding down toward the backing, where it will end up when hand-tacked down.

This extra step takes some time, but I'm such a slooooow hand-tacker that it's worth it to me.  The extra time spent pressing means that I don't have to use pins, clips or anything else while I'm doing the hand work.  I can just lightly hold the binding with my thumb while I stitch with the other hand.  The saved time on the hand work is way more than the time it takes me to do the pressing.

I also save time because of another binding tip from Eula at the shop.  Did you know you don't have to press your binding in half lengthways before you sew it on?  This was a revelation to me!  Just fold it as you line it up and attach it.  The crease that you're missing out on from skipping this step likely wouldn't have ended up exactly where it needed to be anyway b/c of folding the binding over.  And if you try the pressing tip, then you've put the crease exactly where it needs to be instead.

This quilt was too big to manage the pressing on the ironing board, even though I have a big board.  So I used my small table-top ironing board on the floor and didn't have to worry about the weight of the quilt causing it to fall to the floor off my big board. The quilt just stayed on the floor as I worked the quilt, small section at a time, across the smaller ironing board on the floor.

And now for some serious time hand-tacking!  I'm ready to finish this puppy!

Thanks for stopping by,
Nan