Monday, November 29, 2010

no pins.....

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We spent ours up in the Bay Area (right outside of San Francisco for all of you who are not familiar with California) with family. We only go up a few times a year and it is always a joy when we do! It was also where this quilt found it's new home.

I made this quilt as a gift for my sister in laws birthday, which was back in August....but better late than never, right?
Since we were going up for Thanksgiving, I decided to rush it's finish so that I could give it to her in person.
Now normally I don't like to rush the finishing of a quilt, but this time actually forced me to try something that I haven't had the nerve to do yet...


 

machine bind an entire quilt with no pins!! I can't even tell you how exciting this was for me, the whole time I kept looking at my husband going "I can't believe I am actually doing this". Amazingly it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and took a fraction of the time it does when pinning. I didn't get a picture of me sewing it to the front of the quilt, but that was done without pins also. 
Here is what it looked like when finished. 


I didn't have enough time to picture the finished quilt before leaving, so we did it while my sister in law was out shopping, before giving it to her. I really love the simplicity of this quilt and have a feeling it is a style I will play with more in the future. In the beginning, I was nervous about leaving solid squares, but it turned out to be one of my favorite features of the quilt.


Quilted with diaginal lines in both directions, but not in similar patterns. 


Which you could really see on the back of the quilt.
 Just in case anyone is curious this quilt was made with Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush line and Kona cotton in Ash and Snow. I have been on an Ash kick for awhile now, I think it may be time for me to give another solid a try!!

27 comments:

  1. I LOVE it! And your binding turned out amazing. I'm super impressed! What kind of foot is that??

    Jennifer :)

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  2. It is a gorgeous quilt, and the binding looks perfect. Lucky sister-in-law!!

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  3. Beautiful! I'd say that is worth the wait. The "blank" squares are really cool and unexpected.

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  4. You soooo need to show me that technique at the next sew or retreat! And I friggin love the solid squares! You rock!

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  5. It is beautiful - great job on the binding! I bet she LOVES it.

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  6. Wow. Super impressed with the binding! Love the quilt too!

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  7. Gorgeous quilt.
    Your binding looks perfect!!!

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  8. I love it!!! :)Great job on this!!

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  9. the binding looks perfect--what's your secret?!

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  10. I agree - dish the secrets! That binding is awesome. Is that a special foot? The blank squares do look great.

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  11. I love the way that quilt turned out. Everything about it is beautiful, especially the quilting. I am sure your sister in law will love it!

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  12. Um, how the heck did you manage to get it so perfect? I have been sewing binding on without pins a few quilts now and I STILL struggle to get it to look halfway decent.

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  13. Just gorgeous Chris! Seriously. The binding looks awesome too. I hand bind all my quilts no matter what since my attempts at machine binding have been disastrous. I'd love to get brave enough to try again!

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  14. Oh it looks great!! It must have been hard to part with!

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  15. yes i love it! I LOVE your solid blocks just left plain... its such a soothing quilt..colours look great. I bet she loved it! xx

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  16. mmm, now that is a beautiful quilt. I adore AMH's new line and can't wait to cut in to mine. I love the blank square, it is a fun suprise. And that binding looks awesome!!

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  17. I really like the effect of the solid squares mixed it - funny how blank spaces give more interest than if they were all pieced. And your binding looks perfect, I'm a bit envious as I always struggle to keep mine neat and even.

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  18. Oh, Chris! That binding is PERFECT!! Wow. And the quilting is fabulous -- I love how the pattern changes with the direction. You did a really great job.
    Please share your machine binding technique for us mere mortals... :o)

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  19. Wow! You should be proud - I am still working on hand binding that looks presentable!

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  20. so you totally inspired me to machine bind a quilt i'm working on. i was going to pin it, though, but that was kind of a train wreck. so i'm doing it right now without pins, and it's turning out halfway decent! not nearly as good as yours, but it's my first time doing this at all, and i'm really happy with it. :)

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  21. I love the quilt, but I have to say, I just don't believe you about the binding. I want to, I really do. I'm just so scared.

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  22. i heard rumors about your binding at the Dec LAMQG meeting, - had to check this out myself. i'm SOOOOOO impressed. did this go fast?

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  23. Fantastic quilt. One of the best I've seen lately!!! Keep creating! Tiziana

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  24. I need to head over to see how you can do binding that nice on the machine. I love the quilt.

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  25. Awesome job on the binding! I agree with some of the other posts: i finish bindings this way too but they never turn out as perfectly as yours. What's your secret??

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