Hello, Hello. Well we’ve had a bit of weather since we last spoke. I love snow, it reminds of when my girls were small and we used to take them tobogganing. The down side was that the doors on my car froze shut that day, what a nightmare waiting for them to thaw, resisting the tempation to pull at them and rip the door trims.
I finished putting the Japanese quilt top together, all except the borders, which I’m leaving until I can actually see the fabric, as I know what I want use. I have almost finished another bear, no kits this time, the Christmas bear sold out which was so gratifying. Thank you.
How is everyone doing? I’m finding it so much harder this time, perhaps it is the Winter days? The nights are drawing out already, I have snowdrops in the garden and there are catkins in the hedge across the road. Signs of better days to come. Though it is snowing at the moment and when I walked to the post office this morning that wind was bitter.
So let us talk about bias binding. If you have done a workshop with me you know I love a scrappy binding, using up all the left over scraps cut to size and joined together. Perfect. Sometimes though it is good to make proper continous bias binding, its easy enough if you follow the steps. Shall we have a go?
The question I get asked the most is how do I know how much bias binding I need to make. The equation for knowing how much bias binding you need is quite simple. Measure all around your quilt to find out how many inches you need, then add another 10 inches for corners and closing.
So the equation is height of quilt plus width of quilt x 2 plus 10 inches. See that was easy!
I make my bias binding 2 inches wide so that I get a double thickness as a edges of your quilt get the most wear and tear.
I have used a fat quarter to make mine as I need 110″ of bias binding. Cut the fat quarter into an 18″ square. then cut it in half diagonally. Put a pin at the top and bottom of your square.
Next flip the bottom pin up onto the top pin . Remove these pins and sew along that edge with a 1/4 inch seam allowance
You now have a parellogram
Press the seam open. On the wrong side of the fabric draw lines for your chosen size of bias binding, I am making 2 inches apart.
We are going to make a tube. Bring the short edges together, off set the drawn line by one strip. It can be fiddly but perservere it will work out. Just take your time and match up those drawn line. It can be easier to put a pin in one side and pick up the other side when you push through the pin. Pin well as you are working on a bias edge and we all know those bias edges can be little monkeys.
It will look like this when you have sewn it together.
Starting at the offset edge cut your bias binding apart on the lines you have drawn and you will have one continuous length of bias binding.
For my quilts I fold it in half, iron it and then sew it in place. If I’m making a dress or anthing else that needs a binding I run it through a bias binding maker. We did this in Quilt Club when we made our Carry All bags, just watch out for that iron burning your fingers.
This bias binding is for a Liberty fabric quilt I am making. I made the big mistake of hand quilting it. I think I may have to give up on it as its making my hands ache so badly. I’m not a fan on machine quilting, it just doesn’t have that same look, but we have to do what we need to. I will show you the quilt next time, once I get this bias binding on.
I am in the shop on Thursday if anyone needs anything, we are still posting out and you can do click and collect on the website now. Isn’t that clever, those at Mission Control are too clever for their own good sometimes. Beccy will be in on Friday. so give either of us a call about 11 as we don’t stay all day.