My Little Binding Experiment, Part 1....

Hello Everyone,
Here is Part 1 of my "Looking for My Perfect Binding Method."  The backstory is:  I decided a year ago that I could not hand bind anymore, it hurt my fingers and hands, and I just wasn't enjoying it.  If I am going to do hand work I would rather do some embroidery or just about anything else.  For those of you who enjoy snuggling up to your quilt and binding the heck out of it, good for you, and I do sincerely mean that, I just tried and tried and bound over 9 quilts before deciding there had to be a better way for me.  
My first machine binding was last year on a table runner with some fusible thread. It worked fine  however, the idea of sewing around my quilt three times, first for attaching the binding, second for zig-zag with the fusible thread, and third, for stitching the binding down was a drag.  There was also the ironing problem.  (Difficult little snot, aren't I?)  I have certain health problems which make standing in front of a hot iron very uncomfortable so I use my iron sparingly.  So the process worked fine, I just started searching for something that would work better for me.
I finished my spiral table runner recently and thought this would be the time to try something new.

  

   So here's the table runner all done. Isn't it cute?  I used a temporary basting spray to fuse the binding down.  It partially worked the way I wanted it to but overall was not as successful as I had hoped.  As I was sewing some of the binding began to lift due to handling so if I did a large quilt this would not work.  Also the spray was kind of messy on my fingers.  The plus side?  I did not have to use an iron and I did not have to sew around my table runner 3 times.  

     So I went back to JoAnn's and searched the isles for my next idea and will let you know how it goes.  For now I wish you all time to do what you love the most for life is short!

What is Bias Batting Tape Anyway?

Hi Everyone!

Well it has been while hasn't it?  So now that some craziness in my life has settled down I am back and I have been doing a little experimenting and thought I would share it with you.  So those of you who quilt your own quilts, what do you do when you get to the end and you mis-measured your batting?  So after I was done yelling and crying (Just kidding) I went upstairs to retrieve my handy fusible batting tape only to realize that I only had about 6 inches left of the stuff!  What's a girl to do?   I begrudgingly went to the computer to see about ordering more when I thought really what is this tape?  It's lightweight, fusible with a little stretch.  I went to my sewing room and started to hunt around and came across some lightweight knit fusible by the yard leftover from another project.  Next, I took my trusty rotary cutter and made a few bias cuts the same width as the tape I had.  Here is a picture of the tape I made on the batting:

  It held the batting together nicely and I quilted through it with no problems.  I really cannot see how it is any different than what I bought in the roll.  Well there is one difference, mine came in the pieces I cut so instead of one long strip I had to overlap the ones I made which really was no big deal.  It is fusible which means just like the tape it is meant to hold to whatever you iron it to.  The quilt has been on my bed being used every night for several weeks now and I haven't seen anything funny happening to the area where I did this.  Just something for you to think about for you next batting emergency.

Have a great day and make time to do something that you love to do!