Amor de Mis Amores quilt, plus striped binding tutorial

I finished hand sewing down the back of the quilt binding and added the hanging sleeve on Saturday morning, finishing it just an hour before we were due at James and Armando's UK wedding reception, at Crathorne Hall in North Yorkshire! I was so tired on Thursday evening, as I had a cold, and needed an early night because I had a sashiko class at The Peacock and the Tortoise all day on Friday, so I didn't get the fourth side of the binding sewn down on the back. We drove down to Stockton on Friday evening, so I couldn't finish it then either. On Saturday morning, I got the fourth side sewn, and then decided to sew right round the binding again, just to make it extra secure.  The quilt will be going to Mexico, so I can't pop over and redo it if any of the stitching unravels.

The border and binding are both striped Japanese cottons.  The yellow border is cotton tsumugi, in the traditional narrow kimono width. I cut it into four for the binding, so it is approx. 3 1/2in wide, with the stripes running parallel to the quilt edge.

The binding is a folded double binding made from 2 1/2in strips of one of the new Olympus striped cottons.  I thought the colours of this one coordinated really well with the quilt centre.  Striped binding fabrics look more interesting when they are cut across the stripe. The pieces were joined on the diagonal, which reduces bulk, and then pressed, with the top edge slightly set back from the bottom edge, which seems to reduce bulk quite well.





There is still the issue of lining up the binding with the stripe in the border - the binding mustn't look like it is wobbling on and off the border stripe. The trick is to line up the binding with the quilt edge on the right, slightly stepping the binding back by about 1/8in. I used a walking foot and, apart from the corner mitre folds, I didn't pin the binding.  Instead, I lined it up by eye, a bit at a time, lining up with the border stripe on hte left and the edge on the right (above).

Turning the corner mitre is shown below.

If you like the effect of this quilt, check out Paula Doyle's "Easy Stack Quilts' book.

My latest quilt project

This is a quilt I'm making as a gift, but I don't think it will be spotted on here! The fabric is 'Frida la Catrina' by Alexander Henry, the block layout is my Irori quilt, and the cutting method is from Paula Doyle's 'Easy Stack Quilts'. The fabric takes a bit of prepping before you cut, as the stack of four layers is held together with tailors tacks, so it can't shift, but the result is well worth it! I used 3 metres of fabric, which was a bit of a squeeze for this quilt, which has no sashing to eke out the blocks.  After arranging the cuts to make the most of the figures in the fabric (I didn't want to loose their faces), I assembled a few of the leftovers to fill in the gaps.

Two blocks where the rectangles were pieced from thinner strips.

If you like the effect, there's also a Facebook group you can join to see other Easy Stack quilts made by group members.

It was longarm quilted by Fiona Garth at Quilt Sandwich in Bridlington - the pattern is 'Dahlia', the national flower of Mexico (that's where the quilt will be going to live).

The quilt came back yesterday! Sorry, no photo of the whole quilt top yet, as it rained yesterday evening so I couldn't get a good outdoor shot. here are a few details for now.

We decided to use an off white thread, so it wouldn't make a dark line where it crossed the faces on the quilt.  It gives a lovely delicate effect on the darker background areas.

All I have to do now is bind and label it.  Will post more photos soon.