My little Luke seems to be doing better, but we’re still on a strict feeding regiment. We’ve finished the antibiotics, much to his relief. Hopefully we’ll be able to go back to his regular diet in the very near future, when he gets close to finishing the bag and cans of food that the vet prescribed.
Meanwhile, I finished the quilt and added the binding for the Double 4-patch baby quilt. It was perfect timing, actually, because a friend called and asked me if I would be able to show her and her friend how I machine-bind my quilts. I had just finished quilting and had prepped the binding for this one, and it was nice to have a small quilt to be able to demonstrate. Two birds, one stone.
I add my binding using my machine now, because a) it’s faster than by hand, b) my vision isn’t what it used to be, and c) my hands just can’t do the hand-sewing now without pain.
I use 2½” bias strips of my binding fabric, folded in half lengthwise. I sew it to the back of the quilt using a 3/8″ seam. My Pfaff standard foot (0) works very well for alignment, and has an approximate 3/8″ seam allowance without moving the needle.
I then turn it to the front, and change my foot to my quarter-inch foot (without guide) because I really like how it is shaped. I have my original version of the foot (left) and the newer version (right), pictured below. Either one works – I’m not using the right edge of the foot, I’m most interested in how it almost works as an open-toe but with enough of a ledge inside to hold down the folded edge of the binding as I sew (so it doesn’t flip back and I miss getting really close to that folded edge).
The hole and narrow center cutout are my stitching line. I try to line up my fabric about halfway between that “guide” and the left inner edge of the foot, like this:
And when I line it up well enough, most of my stitching on the back is on the backing fabric, almost “in the ditch”. Occasionally the stitching creeps up onto the binding, but I’m not bothered by that. Most people won’t notice, as they’re too busy admiring the front of the quilt.
Oh, and I try to match my bobbin thread to the backing and my top thread to the binding fabric as best I can for this finishing step. For attaching the binding to the quilt back, before you turn it over for finishing – that can be almost any color, bobbin and top threads.
I now have 4 baby quilts to give to Downs Syndrome Association of Middle Tennessee (my friend Margie also gave me one to take that she had made), and hopefully the families and babies who get them will be blessed by them!