Monday, February 16, 2015

Ice storm of 2015

What did you do today? Here is a little of what I did....

...made some yummy potato and ham soup...

...then some chocolate chip cookies....

...watched the ice and sleet fall...

...did the quilting and binding on this quilt....The backing is grey "grunge" fabric....

I used a little free pantograph that I had printed off and taped the sheets together. I'd never used it before but I think I like it. It is straight lines which are very difficult to do, but I think they turned out ok.

Then I decided to machine bind it, which I rarely do...for good reason.....I'm not good at it. The above picture shows how "not good" at it I am.....

...this one is a bit better....I'll only do it if I think the thread will almost disappear into the backing.....Do you machine bind? Hand bind? Or both?

...pretty productive day....and for now anyway, we still have power!

 

5 comments:

Dolly said...

Sounds like the sewing machines were humming all over Tennessee yesterday !

I do machine-bind alot lately, since I've been machine-quilting. I stitch in the ditch on the front side of the quilt, and have a generous lapover in the back, with my stitching showing about 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch.

That quilting design that you used is great....really interesting ! So you have a long-arm machine?

Rachel said...

Yes, Dolly, I have a long arm. I bought it about six years ago now and have made over a 100 quilts on it. I think I just need to practice on my machine binding. It sure is quick!

Dolly said...

How wonderful ! An added enjoyment in your retirement !

Jan said...

I used to be one of those 'purists' and hand pieced, quilted and bound, but I realized that at the rate I was going, I'd never use up my stash...

Binding was always stressful, so zipping it on with the machine is a joy. I still enjoy hand work, though, and sew the back down by hand while sitting around in the evening.

Karen said...

I used to hand bind but switched to machine binding because I found a method I was very happy with and I like the finish plus I just don't have the same time as I used to. I use Rita's (Red Pepper Quilts) method. It works every time.