Wednesday, April 16, 2014

WIP Wednesday - Satin Binding


I am smack dab in the middle of prom season, so not as much quilting going on as I would like, but I did get to finish up a project for a nice lady.  Now, I know that some people will shake their head over her choice of finishes, but it is her quilt, and she can have it finished how she likes....there are plenty of old tops that will be hand quilted and carefully bound in vintage muslin.  But this one, it has a lively pink satin binding and a pretty floral back to go with it!



As you can see this top has quite a few age spots....the piecing is ok - not perfectly flat, but I find that not many old tops really are!  Many of them are quite lumpy and the extra fabric definitely needs "quilted out"!  This one had a very interesting finish on the sides.  Instead of having the jagged ins and outs, this quilter pieced arcs of feedsack (you could even still faintly see the printing on some of the pieces!) set into the sides.  Ingenious!  This is the only quilt I have ever seen done this way.



I sewed the pretty pink satin on with a wide zig-zag and mitered the corners nicely.  This will be a neat blanket to snuggle under when it's finished - I hope she uses pink to do the ties as well.

I had already planned to post about this quilt and how I liked the non-traditional finish and was really affirmed in the choice when I read this article - All Inclusive.  I think it's time all of us quilters stopped turning up our noses at each other's choices in quilting and learn to embrace the fact that there are so many ways to do what we love, and we all just need to support each other in our choices!  This quilt is in no way diminished by finishing it in this manner.  It elevates it from being just a top on the closet shelf and allows it to be used and enjoyed.  Which is really why it was made....after all, no one makes a Grandmothers Flower Garden because it is the only shape you can use to make something useful out of those scraps!  Someone had fun making something pretty out of fabric.  She spent time cutting out those hexagons and piecing them together because she enjoyed the process!  And now someone else is going to enjoy being able to actually use it for a snuggle blanket - it just makes me smile to think about it :)  I hope if I don't get to finish making all of my tops into quilts that one of my kids or grandkids will feel free to finish them however they desire and USE them!!


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