Working on my PHD

I've been trying to be a good girl lately and work on my PHD.  My Projects Half Done that is!

I started this queen sized flannel quilt almost four years ago.  I just fell in love with the border print and knew I had to make something with that beautiful flannel!  Blue, brown, cream, and green are just a color combination that I can't resist.  So natural and peaceful.  You'll notice I do a lot of projects in some combination of those colors.

I picked out the Hopscotch pattern for my flannels so that it would showcase the larger print well.  Also, I feel like flannel can be a bit tricky to piece accurately so it's better suited to larger patterns. 

Four years ago, I managed to make it all the way to the completion of the quilt top and I even prepped the binding!  I had the backing there and ready to go, but somehow I just never took the leap to lay it out.

Well, thank goodness I took the time to get that done.  My task today was to sit down with my cup of coffee and my sewing machine and start quilting my layers. 

 

(P.S. did you know that I do all of my sewing in the summer months from my RV?!  It's a smallish  space, but much bigger than my old RV.  And frankly, I'll make any space work for a quilting room!)

 

 

I felt so good when I took that big heavy quilt off of my machine and got to pet the pretty finished quilt top. 

 

Then I turned it over.

 

What a coffee buzz kill! 

 

Right there in the very center of my quilt back lay this unsightly tuck.  



Ugh.  Whoa there Katie.  Too much coffee girl! Step away from the coffee and slow down that quilting.

Well, after a little seam ripping (just enough to make my friend there lay down and behave) I was finally happy with my quilting so I got down to binding.

I went back and forth on whether to hand sew the binding down, or do a machine finished binding.  I've worked with both methods and I would say that the method I use depends on the project.  If I'm even mildly interested in submitting my quilt for a show, or keeping it as an heirloom it's a no-brainer.  Hand sewn binding all the way.

A lot of the quicker, less stress pieces that I make purely for function, or sometimes even to sell, I choose a nice stitch pattern and machine sew that puppy down.  It saves A LOT of time!
Ultimately with this quilt, it was the flannel that made my decision for me.  The bulk of all that flannel just wasn't going to get through my machine in a way that was going to make me happy. So hand sewing the binding it is!

 

Here's a little glimpse of the outer border (the fabric I just fell in love with) and the nice striped binding that I put on. 

 

Now off to my lawn chair with my quilt to get some work done on that binding! 

Have a very quilty night my friends!