Well, y'all, I'm still working on the quilt I'm trying to finish for our daughter's special birthday next week. I thought I'd be finished by now and moving on to my next project. The idea of making Christmas presents just flew out the window. With over two dozen recipients on my list that may happen by the year 2030 but I doubt it.
I bought three bundles of binding which, I have learned, is double-fold bias tape, for Stefanie's quilt, brought it home and immediately realized it won't do. It looks kind of like a soft blue satin with a cloud essence which will probably work great when I get around to making quilts for the grand and greatgrandsons but not for this quilt. So back to the fabric store I went.
This time I decided to find a coordinating fabric and cut my own binding strips. It can't be that hard, can it? Accuracy is not my forte so getting the cuts straight is a challenge. I have had a handy dandy little ruler of sorts that has the cutting lines built in for accuracy, but did I use that when I made my quilt tops several years ago? No, I did not. Sometimes I wonder about myself. This time I did use it and it's amazing how much it helps. The hard part was ironing the binding in half then in fourths then in halves again, but I got it done.
I started sewing the binding onto the quilt and about halfway around I realized that this was not how I meant to attach it and had to take it all back off. My seam ripper and I are constant companions these days. I ironed it again and started over fresh. I figured I could sew it on without pinning by adjusting it as I went along. This might have worked if I had been just straight stitching, but I decided to get creative. I selected a very pretty fancy stitch and off I went.
Big mistake. It started out fine then, BOOM, it started wrinkling. I'd stop, smooth it with my fingers, and resume sewing. I convinced myself I'd be able to iron out the wrinkles once I washed the quilt and kept going. I got to the end. and it was about four inches short! What the heck! It had fit perfectly when I had sewn it on the first time. Okay, I said to myself, since this is the bottom of the quilt, I'll just piece in the missing length and no one will be the wiser. HA!
I washed, I ironed and nope, it didn't work. It looked awful. I spent the next day and a half ripping the stitching out. It was easier than the first time because the stitches were longer and accessible, but it took way longer because there were so many more. I've made a new border, and it better not give me any trouble, dang it.