Finishing the Heart Quilt...

 Over a year ago I started and finished a flimsy (the finished pieced top layer of a quilt) at the sewing group that had been meeting at St. Rafael's church.  You can find the information on the heart quilt back in the March 2020 post.  The pattern was part of a Missouri Star Quilt Company video tutorial and there was a pattern that you could download.  It was a Pixelated Heart.  

I took the quilt to my local quilt shop to be quilted.  The backing fabric came from Missouri Star Quilt Co as well.  It was a 108" wide  backing called "Circle Play" with a white background.  It had all of the colors in the heart colored squares and gave the back some real pizazz.   I had the shop provide the batting.  The wonderful thing about this quilt shop, Northern Threads, is they have a 48-hour turnaround.  Eat your hearts out quilters, who have to wait weeks to get their quilts back from their longarmers.

So the final step is to put the binding on the quilt.  I decided since this quilt is going to be a wall hanging in the entry above my front door, to try making a flanged binding.  I have seen them being made, but have not tried one myself.  So I watched a couple of videos (don't you just love everything you can learn on YouTube) and wrote down measurements and some basic instructions and headed to my cutting table and then my sewing machine.

The idea of a flanged binding is that you sew two strips together, one slightly wider than the other so that when folded in half to be sewn on the quilt, there is a small strip of a different color that makes it look like you have added piping to the binding.  The fabric you want as the piping is cut wider than the main binding fabric.

I am using the backing fabric as the main color and a Fuschia color that will show as the piping.  The main fabric strip is 1 1/2 inches wide and the Fuschia color strip is 1 3/4 inches wide.  You cut as many strips as you need to go all around the quilt and then add at least 10 inches.  I usually do more than that as you do not want to miscalculate, cut, and sew strips together only to be short as you are trying to finish.

Once the individual strips are sewn together lengthwise you will simply sew the two long strips together with a quarter-inch seam.

You will match the strip's right sides together.  The piping color will be a little wider.  You will sew along the side that is matched.

This is how you sew the strips together.

Now you will iron the strip open.  Press so the excess seam is ironed under the darker colors.

I found it better to finger press first in order to prevent places where the ironing might create pleats.

Now you will turn the wrong sides together and iron the entire strip so that everything is flat and the little piping is just showing beyond the edge of the main color.

I placed clips all along the quilt strips to keep the strips even all along the length of the strip.

Now you are going to take the strip and, starting on the back, you are going to pin or clip the binding with the main color and the piping facing the quilt and stitch a scant quarter-inch seam.  (sorry, I did not get a picture of this step... I forgot!  I just wanted to get started!)

Join the ends in whatever method you have been taught to use.  Then flip the binding around to the front side of the quilt.  Miter the corners so the piping lines up correctly.  Either pin or clip the binding down.  I have found that ironing the binding on the backside and pressing it away from the quilt will make this step go easier.

Now, here comes the fun part.  Most quilters hand sew the binding on and many quilters wish there was an easier way to do that.  With the flanged binding, you will finish the binding by using the sewing machine.

I found using a walking foot for this step was easier.  Carefully and slowly "stitch in the ditch" all the way around the binding.  You follow the seam line between the main fabric and the piping color.  I just used an ivory-colored thread.  You can also use the color of the piping on the top thread and a color that will blend into the backing in the bobbin.  That is up to you.

For the first time using this technique, it was not too bad.  I will definitely use this binding again.  Since this quilt will spend its beginning days hanging high up on a wall, the places where I wandered a bit off the seam will not be seen.

Here is the quilt finished.  Quilted, bound, and washed.  She just needs a label and a method to be hung!

Here is a look at the back.  Using the backing fabric as a binding color has the binding blending in and almost invisible.

Here are the front side and the flange binding.  I think it looks wonderful.

I will get more pictures once the quilt is hanging on the entry wall.  I have a plan to have smallish but sturdy hooks hanging from the ceiling.  Then using extending poles with a clothing hook on the end, using binder clips on the quilt, we should be able to hang the quilts without needing tall ladders and doing a lot of damage to walls or ceilings or needing a special sleeve on the quilt.