Reveal - 2019 Color Challenge Quilts

I've been teasing you lately with pictures of my completed 2019 Color Challenge quilt blocks and bindings (even more so on social media!), but I'm ready to share the quilts today.

As I have said before, I made two full sets of blocks and just reversed the fabric placement. See THIS post to see what I mean. Even though I toyed with the idea of making one large quilt, I ultimately decided to make two separate quilts, and I'm very happy with my choice.  :-)

I used Jen's awesome Checkered Rainbow setting for the original blocks, and I love how it looks. I loved the look of a black and white border, but I also knew that I didn't want to use a solid black and white. What was a girl to do?  I was thrilled when I found this Wilmington Prints fabric - Bubble Up. 

Isn't it perfect? I paired it with this Zen Chic Spotted Black fabric.

Success!

And just because I love a good side view of a quilt...

Do you see what I mean about how beautifully that Bubble Up fabric works?  

I used the Spotted Black for my backing and while it's difficult to see in pictures, I like how the quilting design shows up on it. 

Jen has great instructions on the Checkered Rainbow option on her blog. Be sure to check it out. I did add an additional small black border (1.5" finished) so I could sew a flange binding and not lose any of my points. 

The Checkered Rainbow border and sashing was somewhat time consuming and labor intensive - but so well worth it! I decided that my second quilt was going to have a very simple border and sashing offering. 

I chose two fabrics - the Spotted Black (can you tell that I really liked this fabric and bought a bunch of it? lol) and Grey Rustic Weave by Moda to frame the blocks. The grey looks slightly brown in this picture, but it is grey.

I framed the blocks, alternating the fabrics with a 1.5" finished frame. Technically, that made the finished block size 15". I then laid out the blocks in the same order as the first quilt. I played around with borders and decided that I needed/wanted to use the Bubble Up fabric because it had so many of the block colors in it. After sewing on that 2" finished border, I decided that I couldn't end with that fabric, so I added a 3" finished border of the Spotted Black. I was still a bit underwhelmed when the top was together, but while I was picking up fabrics to put away, I decided that a scrappy binding made from all the Starlet fabrics (Blank Quilting) that I used for the blocks just might solve the "boring" problem. I think I made the right decision.

Of course, here are the obligatory side view pictures. 

Because these quilts are so colorful (I guess the challenge worked!), I thought it would be fun to photograph them in a park or playground. We are fortunate to have one very close to us, so Jack and I took advantage of the surprisingly good weather and headed to the park. 

Jack actually took most of the pictures this time because he is nursing a sore leg and I didn't want him up on a step stool (which you can see in some of the pictures, but I don't care). When he takes pictures, this is some of what you get.  😄  I guess he hasn't figured out how to delete pictures before handing them over to me.  hahahaha

We had a good time and laughed through much of the picture taking. We tried a lot of different shots, trying to be creative like those other quilters out there. We succeeded in some cases, but failed miserably in others.  lol

We really wanted some good pictures of the two quilts together, just haphazardly hanging side by side. We had good intentions...

And then we thought that we should get some pictures of the bindings and maybe some of the quilting...

Like the Spotted Black, I bought a lot of the Grey Rustic Weave, so I used that for the backing of the second quilt. It shows off the random free motion quilting that I did.  

After we got home, I realized that we didn't get any of the flange binding by itself. Oh well... We did however, get these pictures of the binding. I really like the first picture!

 Even though it doesn't look like it, both quilts measure approximately 60" x 70". I just folded them differently when I was trying to show off the binding.

I am very pleased with these quilts and am looking forward to the 2020 Challenge. Check back tomorrow, because Jen is releasing the first block a day early - December 31st, and I'm blogging about it. Yay!

Bindings

If you've been reading my blog for any real length of time, you know that I really like to do bindings - so much so that I offer to do them for friends. It's really not just because it means that the quilt is almost done (yes, that feels good too!), but it's because I love how a binding can make a so-so quilt look awesome.

I participated in the 2019 Color Challenge hosted by Jen over at Patterns by Jen  What's kind of funny to me is that I don't really like sampler quilts, and that is exactly what this is. So what did I do? I made two blocks each month. I made the original block provided by Jen; and in the second one, I reversed the fabric placement. Here are a few examples...     

Even though we didn't have to sign up to finish and blog about our completed quilt, I decided to do so simply to give me the push to get them done. It really would be easy for me to set the blocks aside and then have them get shoved into the UFO abyss - AKA the "tub of shame." 

Both quilts are done and I'm happy with the results. I have to get some pictures, but that won't happen today. Instead, I'm going to give you a sneak peek at the bindings.  :-)

One of the quilts has a scrappy binding that is sew the traditional way - sewn to the front by machine and hand stitched to the back.

I used a flange binding (machine sewn to the back and then machine sewn to the front) for the second one. 

I can't decide which quilt/binding I like best!  :-)

Flange Binding Tutorial - Picture Heavy

 The technical problem is fixed, and it was not the cable. 

As promised, here is the tutorial for how to  

add a flange binding 

totally by machine.

Warning!! 

This post is very picture heavy.

Here we go...

Determine the amount of fabric needed

If you aren't sure how to do that for "regular" binding, here's a quick refresher:

1. Measure the perimeter (all the sides) of the quilt.

2. Add 10-12" corner turning allowance, etc. 

3. Divide that number by the width of your binding fabric to determine how many strips you'll need. 

4. To determine the amount of yardage needed, multiply the number of strips needed times the width you will cut your strips.

Example: a 40" x 50" quilt

40" + 40" + 50" + 50" = 180"  +  12"  = 192"

192" divided by 40" of usable width of fabric = 4.8 strips - round up to 5 strips

5 strips x 2 1/2" = 12 1/2"  = 3/8 yard (13 1/2")

It is a little different when determining yardage for a flange binding because you will be using two different fabrics and they are cut two different sizes.

For this sample, I used red for the flange and blue for the outside binding strip.

Cut the appropriate number of strips determined above as follows:

Flange Fabric (red) - 1 3/4" (1 7/8" for a bit larger flange)

Outside Binding (blue) - 1 1/2" 

Diagonally piece the strips so you have two long pieces of fabric (one for the flange fabric and one for the outside binding fabric).

Press all of the seams open

After both strips are sewn together and pressed, sew them together along the long edge. I like to have the smaller piece (the outside binding fabric) on top. I just feel that it helps me be consistent and avoid flipped fabrics.

Once the strips are sewn together, press them to the outside binding fabric (blue)

With wrong sides together, press the long strip in half horizontally.

Align the raw edges of the newly sewn binding strip to the back of the quilt with the flange fabric facing up. (This is opposite of what you do when you are going to hand stitch the binding to the back.) I find it important to "walk" the binding around the quilt to prevent the seams of the binding from ending up at the corners. If they are there, it is quite challenging to fold it over because of the bulkiness. 

Using a walking foot if you have one and leaving a 8-10" tail at the beginning, sew the binding strip to the quilt. (I tend to sew with a slightly large 1/4" seam allowance and have no problems.)

Stop sewing 1/4" (or whatever your seam allowance is) from the edge of the quilt. See the white mark in the picture below? That's where I stopped sewing. See the note below to know exactly where to stop perfectly every single time! 

To find the stopping  point, fold the binding strip up to create a 45° angle (picture #1 below) and crease that seam (picture #2 below). Wherever your seam hits the crease is the correct stopping point (picture #2 below).  Sorry! The technical difficulties I was experiencing caused the deletion of the pictures using the red and blue fabrics.

                                           Picture #1                                            

  Picture #2     

Remove the quilt from the machine and fold the binding back upwards creating a diagonal fold (a 45 degree angle is formed). Be sure to align the raw edges of the binding with the raw edges of the quilt as in the picture below. (The raw edges create a straight line going up.)

                          

While holding the diagonal fold in place with your finger, fold the binding down, making the fold even with the top of the quilt edge. Make sure that the binding underneath does not stick out beyond the fold. Pinning is not necessary, but it does help keep things lined up better (and makes taking a picture easier).  :-)

Sew from the top fold with the same seam allowance as before. Continue to the next corner, where you will stop 1/4" (or the size of the seam allowance) from the corner, as before.

Once you miter the last corner, sew down the final side until you are approximately 8-10" from the end of the tail left from when you started adding the binding (not where you started sewing). The tails should overlap.

Remove the quilt from the machine and lay it on a flat surface.

Lay out the beginning tail so it is flat and smooth along the edge of the quilt. Fold the ending tail until it meets and "butts" up to the beginning tail (red in the picture below). 

From the point of the meeting, mark a line on the ending tail that is equal to the width of the binding strip. In this case, it should be 2 3/4" (2 7/8" if you made the flange larger)

Cut the ending tail on the marked line. The strips will overlap an amount equal to the width of the binding strip (2 3/4" or 2 7/8"). 

To join the two strips, you will diagonally piece the strips as you did earlier. Careful turning will avoid twisted strips. Again, sorry for the "odd" pictures but the original ones are somewhere in cyberspace

Open the beginning tail and lay it flat, with the right side up. Flip the folded edge of the ending tail so that it is facing downward. 

Rotate the folded edge of the ending tail so it is now upright and facing the left edge, near the beginning tail.

Open the ending tail so it is right side down and draw a diagonal line from the upper left corner to the lower right corner (as you did earlier when diagonally piecing the binding strips). 

Pin and sew along the drawn line, just like you did when piecing the original binding strips. You may want to use a basting stitch here to verify that you have properly lined up the flange and outside binding fabrics. (See pictures below.)

Basted along the seam line.

And it worked! Yeah!! Make adjustments as needed and then stitch using the regular stitch length.

Trim 1/4" from the stitched line, towards the corner. Press the seam open.

Refold the binding, wrong sides together. Press if needed. Align the raw edge of the binding to with the raw edge of the quilt and finish sewing the binding strip to the quilt.

Press the binding out away from the seam so it is easier to fold it to the front of the quilt. Once it is folded over to the front, stitch in the ditch between the flange fabric and the outside binding fabric. Using a thread color that matches the flange fabric will "hide" the stitches. You might find it helpful to pin or clip the folded fabric so as to prevent it from shifting while sewing.

When you approach a corner, fold and stitch as you would if you were hand sewing. I like to use my Clover Wonder Clips to hold the corners in place. 

First fold

Second fold

Secure in place for stitching

Simply turn the corner as you are stitching in the ditch. To make it easy and look nice, be sure to keep your needle in the down position when you are turning the corner.

It's hard to see the stitching on the back so I put my seam ripper down to point it out. By the way, I often use the seam ripper as a stiletto to help move the quilt along, especially when working in the corner. 

Here's where the two tails were sewn together and then sewn down from the front. Not too bad!

I just love the touch of color that this flange adds to the quilt.

Plus, it doesn't take nearly as long to do as hand stitching.  :-)

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions.