Three Ways to Save Time Binding Your Quilt

Anything but binding!

You’ve spent weeks making the perfect quilt but now it’s time for the worst part – binding. Many quilters consider it a tedious but necessary evil. Here are some suggestions for making the binding process a little easier:

  • Continuous Strip Binding – Continuous strip binding is the most common method of binding and has the advantage of providing two layers of fabric to protect the edge of your quilt. The binding is usually machine sewn to the front of the quilt and hand stitched to the back. You can save tons of time by machine sewing the binding on the back, but this can sometimes have the unwanted side effect of showing a machine stitching line on the front that is not so straight. This problem is easily solved by machine sewing the binding the back first, then finish by folding the binding to the front and machine stitching on the front. This way, you can see what you are doing on the front and neatly machine stitch the perfect distance from the edge of the binding.
  • Self-Binding – Self-binding is significantly less time consuming than the traditional continuous strip binding and it’s a great way to show off a really pretty backing fabric. With self-binding, the backing fabric also doubles as the quilt’s binding. Simply cut the backing fabric a couple of inches larger than the quilt. Press the fabric once towards the quilt, matching the cut edge of the binding to the edge of the quilt, then press again over the front of the quilt and top stitch. The disadvantage is your binding will only be one layer thick. If your quilt is going to receive a lot of wear and tear, you might want to endure the continuous strip binding.
  • Pillowcase Method – You can avoid binding all together with this method! Simply cut your backing the same size as the quilt, sew together with right sides facing, leaving an opening large enough for turning right side out. Blind stitch the opening closed and finish by tying. You won’t be able to quilt the layers by traditional means because the quilt could get really scrunched up and distorted but think of the time you’ll save!

Whichever method you chose, the sooner your binding is done, the sooner you can start your next quilt!

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Sometimes You are Going to Give a Gift Card

Sometimes You are Going to Give a Gift Card

I’m sure I speak for many crafty folks out there as well as myself when I say: every year, I vow to make all handmade gifts. I’ve been at this game long enough to know if you even want a prayer of doing it, you have to start in July. I’ve got that part down. But somehow, despite starting early, I never manage to get my handmade gifts done. By the time you are reading this, at best it is two days before Christmas. I want to tell you that it’s OK to just set that glue gun down. Here are some scenarios when its OK to forgo the handmade gifts:

  • When the list gets too long – Way back in July, I planned on making handmade gifts for all of the gals in my knitting group. In July, it seemed like a sterling idea. At the time, there were only 5 people in the group. But by November, the groups ranks had blossomed to over one dozen. Making over a dozen handmade gifts no longer seemed reasonably achievable. You can make 3 or 4 handmade gifts, but once you get into double digits, you have surpassed handmade and entered the territory of mass-production.
  • When the recipients aren’t going to be into it – Crafty people LOVE handmade gifts, and we know and greatly appreciate the level of effort and the expense that goes into making them. But if you are gifting people who are not crafty, they may not appreciate the effort. One year, I had a sister-in-law offer to give me money so that I could “buy good gifts next year”. Do not craft for these people.
  • When it’s going to make you stressed out – If making the handmade gifts is going to require you skipping sleep, staying up late nights, and yelling at your family to leave you the heck alone then you are not going to derive any pleasure from this gift giving effort. You would be better off to scale back your plans, make some popcorn and watch a movie with the kids.

If you find yourself picking up a handful of gift cards tomorrow, do not despair. They don’t have to be the “worst gift ever”. For example, one of the knitters in my knitting club lost her father this year. As a result, she’s just not feeling the big gift-giving spirit. But she found a simple but thoughtful way to come up with gifts for her family and at the same time honor the spirit of her Dad. It turns out, he loved coffee and Lindt chocolates. So, she is giving everyone in her family a little bag with a few Lindt chocolates and a gift card to a local coffee shop. On the cards, she wrote “Have a coffee with Dad”. In doing so, she’s not just giving chocolate and coffee, she’s giving everyone an opportunity to share memories of Dad.
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This Thanksgiving, Make a Quilt Instead

Make a quilt instead!

This week is Thanksgiving, and I am having none of it: the shopping, the cooking, the cleaning… surely there must be a better way to enjoy a national holiday! What if, instead of stuffing a bird, we stuffed a quilt? Here are six reasons why the best thing to make this year for Thanksgiving is a quilt:

• Is This Really a Day Off? – You finally got a day off from work. Do you really want to spend it jostling in the store for groceries, spending the entire day before doing prep cooking, then spending all of Thanksgiving Day itself on your feet? You could be sitting. You could be quilting.
• The Cost – I’m embarrassed (or possibility horrified) to say I have routinely spent $300 or more on this one meal. Even at a whopping $12.99 per yard for good quality quilting fabric, you could buy over 23 yards of fabric for that kind of money.
• Multitasking Fail – You will spend hours or days making this meal, yet you still must continue to make three other meals per day (and clean up!) for the family at the same time you are making this epic meal. That is just wrong. If you made a quilt, sure you are doing lots of things: cutting, basting, sewing, pressing – but you only have to do one at a time. What a relief.
• Cleaning Up – After you make a huge Thanksgiving meal, you have to spend literally an entire day cleaning up. After you make a quilt, you don’t have to do anything. I think its safe to say I haven’t cleaned up my sewing room in over a year and I see no need to do so anytime soon.
• Leftovers – Thanksgiving leftovers are kinda gross. You will be stuck eating them for days, long after your enthusiasm for turkey has passed. Quilting leftovers, on the other hand, are awesome. You can use them to make another quilt!
• Permanence – After you make this huge meal, it gets eaten in 20 minutes then it’s gone. Conversely, your quilt will last forever.

All that being said, you should still make a pie. Everything is better with pie… including quilting!
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A New Perspective on the Cost of Quilting

Quilting is still cheaper than many things…

The average cost per yard of good quality quilting cotton is $10-12 per yard, which makes quilting a hobby that can get expensive quickly. Although there are many blogs and other crafty sites that offer suggestions on how to acquire fabric more cost effectively (I’m sorry… I’m just not ready to cut up old, thrifted sheets just yet), there is another way to look at the cost of quilting. Quilting may be expensive, but at the end of the day it’s a form of entertainment. What is the cost of quilting relative to other forms of entertainment? Let’s have a look:

  • Movies – According to www.the-numbers.com, a website that tracks data about the movie industry, the average movie ticket costs $9.16 or $18.32 for you and a date. You could stay home, watch something for free on TV and buy 1.5 yards of fabric for that price.
  • Dining – According to the good people at restaurant.org, the average cost per person for a casual dining experience is $12-20 per person. Would you rather have that instantly forgettable dried up Tequila Sunrise Grilled Chicken or another yard and a half of fabric?
  • Concerts – The average price of a ticket to the 100 most popular tours in North America is $91.86. You could instead save what’s left of your hearing, not be stuck in traffic for over 2 and a half hours after the show and still buy over 7.5 yards of fabric for that price.
  • Vacation – According to American Express, the average vacation expense per person in the United States is $1,145, or $4,580 for a family of four. You could have bought over 95 yards of fabric for the cost of your ticket price alone. Even the most voracious quilter would have a hard time going through that much fabric in three years!
  • Car Ride – According to the knowledgeable folks at AAA, the national average price for a gallon of gas is over $3.18. To fill up most tanks, you are looking at over $50. Rather than taking a car ride to literally anywhere, the obvious alternative is to stay home and quilt!

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You Might Be Addicted to Quilting

You might be addicted to quilting if…
I love my morning coffee, and I’ll be the first to admit, it’s very addictive. Then… I tried quilting. After just a few stiches, I knew I was hooked. But how can you tell if you are addicted to quilting? Let’s take a look:
• If you have ever started more than one new quilting project before finishing your current project, you might be addicted to quilting.
• If you have ever snuck off to your car during the workday to get in a little hand quilting, you might be addicted to quilting.
• If you have no available closet space because all of your closets are full of quilting fabric and quilts in various stages of completion, you might be addicted to quilting.
• If you are hiding quilting fabric in the trunk of your car right now, you might be addicted to quilting.
• If you plan your vacations around hitting as many quilt shops as you can along the way, you might be addicted to quilting.
• If your local quilt shop sends you a birthday card every year, you might be addicted to quilting.
• If you ever faked being sick so you could stay home from work to quilt, you might be addicted to quilting.
• If you cannot just sit and watch TV without some quilting in your lap, you might be addicted to quilting.
• If you bring graph paper to work just so you can sketch out quilts during boring meetings, you might be addicted to quilting.
• If you save old clothes just so you can cut them up into squares, you might the addicted to quilting. (You might also be brilliantly frugal, but that is a post for another day).
• If you ever brought a quilting project with you while visiting relatives so you could avoid talking to them, you might be addicted to quilting.
• If your sewing machine cost more than your car, you might be addicted to quilting.
How did you do? If you said “yes” to 5 or more of the above, you are probably addicted to quilting. Happily, there is no known cure, so pour another cup of coffee and get back to it!
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Quilting Scissors and Burritos Don’t Mix

Not with my good scissors

Every quilter knows you don’t use good quilting scissors to cut paper. If only their family members knew that as well. We asked our By the Yard® comics readers what was the worst abuse of their sewing scissors and here are some of the best (worst?) responses:
• Paper, of course. How many times do we have to say it?
• Wrapping Paper – Here is a tip: This still counts as paper. The word “paper” is in the name!
• Packages – Not only is this a violation of the “no paper” rule, but once you get packing tape involved, now we are talking about the blades getting all gummy, too!
• Duct Tape – Even more sticky! Try using your teeth instead.
• Roof Flashing – In a way, I’m impressed that is worked, but the blades will never be the same.
• Wire – I have to admit, as a kid I was guilty of this one myself. Sorry, Mom!
• Tortillas – OK, I get it. They are flat and kind of floppy like fabric, but still!
• The tip off a Tube of Caulking – Home improvement warriors everywhere, take note.
• Laundry Soap Jug – Yes, that DIY birdfeeder you saw on Pinterest is super cool, and I know my sewing scissors are “really sharp”, but still – No.
• Toenails – That’s just gross.
• And finally, the winner has to be… Raw Chicken! Even if I left my scissors in the kitchen (I probably set them down there so I could go handle some family “emergency” like re-booting the Wi-Fi…), that does not make them “kitchen scissors”.
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