Glue Basting Binding

I am pretty sure I have written about this previously but I think it bears repeating.  

I was putting binding on my chenille blanket.   

I was going to machine stitch the binding down rather than hand sew it.  

I really did NOT want to hassle with pinning it all the way around 

so decided to bust out the Elmer's washable school glue.  

Here is how I used the glue.

First I attached the binding with my machine like you usually do. 

 Then I pressed the binding away from the sewn line (toward the other side, to make for easier turning).  Then I put down a thin line of glue.

I turned the binding over the glue and using a hot iron pressed the binding down into the glue.

The heat will dry the glue and keep your binding in place.  

If you need to reposition you just give a tug, put down more glue, arrange to your liking and press. 

 I did this all the way around the blanket.  

I began on a straight side and went until about 6" from the corner.  

The I put glue around the corner on both sides and made my miter.  

When I was happy with the positioning of the miter I pressed it into place.

Once I had the entire binding glue basted 

I used some beautiful Aurifil thread to topstitch the binding in place.  

I went very close to the edge as 

my binding just barely covered the stitch line from attaching it on the other side.  

PERFECT!  

To give credit, I discovered this glue basting tip from Sharon Schamber on You Tube. 

 You can watch how she does it right here.  

It really did not take any longer than pinning and I feel like it increased my accuracy.  

Please let me know if you try it and what you think. 

 Also, with back to school shopping right now Elmer's glue is SUPER cheap so stock up!!

Have a wonderful day and happy binding!

~XOP~

Fun Facts To Know and Tell

I was so very excited to start on the pieced part of my dad's quilt today.
  I made 2 blocks and went to put them with the snowball block and guess what?
 The triangle corners on the snowball block were too big!!
 Now I learned something last year about putting a small square on a larger square and flipping it to make the triangle that I am going to share with you.
 DON'T CUT THE EXCESS OFF.
 Why you ask?
The reasons, for me anyway, are two fold.
 1- If you mess up and have to re do the block everything is still intact and can be saved and
2-It helps keep your block square.
 Kind of acts like a foundation.
 I would have been sunk today if I had trimmed like I used to.
 I took some photos to show you what I mean.

I left all three layers intact as you can see here.  

Sure made my life easier today! 

Now for some tips on reverse sewing. 

I don't know about you but I HATE reverse sewing.  

These are some things I learned that make it slightly less painful!

 First I break the threads with the seam ripper, about every 4-5 threads like this

Then I lifted the thread from the other side like this,

Which makes all the ripped pieces pop up.

 

Then I use a piece of tape to get all the little broken threads off the fabric.

  It keeps the work area clean and I feel it is probably less stressful for the fabric you are taking the threads out of. 

Another thing I learned today, since I had to re-cut all the corner squares from 3 7/8" to 3 1/2"was that  if I pay attention to the way I turn the square, I ended up with the previously sewn line off set. 

 I felt like that was better in that I would not have to sew directly on the old line. 

You can see what I mean here where you can see the old sewing line and now if I sew corner to corner it will not be over the old line, keeping the fabric stronger.

Did anyone happen to notice there is not a drawn line corner to corner on this square? 

 I hate drawing those lines so I found a tool to use so I don't have to.  

There are 2 out on the market that I know of, The Angler 2 and Clearly Perfect.

  I used to use The Angler 2  but now have Clearly Perfect. 

 I like it better because it

  I put my fabric where I want to start sewing and line the bottom "point" up with, in this case, the center line on the CP and as I sew I keep that "point" aligned with the center line on the CP.

Interestingly, you don't watch the needle but rather the "point"
 keeping it on the center line as you sew.
 Sure beats drawing all those lines!!
 It is also an awesome tool for making HST too, although you align your fabric differently.
The CP allows for making fairly large HST blocks b/c the lines extend quite a way.

One more tip I learned recently is that you should pay attention to how you load your bobbin into the case, if your machine has a bobbin case.

 By that I mean whether thread goes "over" the bobbin or comes from "under"

 (kinda like your TP roll). 

 If you hold your bobbin case and gently pull the thread the bobbin should spin clockwise. 

 For my Bernina it means I load the bobbin into the case with the thread coming from "under". 

 I never knew that!

Can you tell I am avoiding more reverse sewing?  LOL 

 Anyway, the pieced blocks are a snap to sew together and I have managed to get a few sewn together, hey it's a start right?

They are turning out soooooo cool!!

 I hope you are all having a better day than I am so far.  

The good news is I have all day to work on this! 

~XOP~

Alternate Winner

I have not heard from Dee. I waited longer than 24 hours hoping I would. I tired her profile for an email ...nada. I tried to email her from her comment...No Reply. PLEASE, people, if you are leaving comments put your email in your reply or change your settings to include this information otherwise I have no way to contact you and that would be a shame, wouldn't it??

I did ask Mr. Random Number Generator to generate another number and he chose...

NUMBER 98 BRENDA who said: I loved loved the idea of writing a blip every day of the year on a quilt. What a heirloom it would be. I see so many possibilities. Thanks so much for sharing. Hoping I win your giveaway so I can start my quilt soon.

If this is you, please email me with your snail mail address so I can get this layer cake right out to you!!

OK, all that being done (I hope), I had a couple of things I thought I would share with you. I brought my 365 quilt to my Thursday guild meeting and off handedly mentioned that I liked one kind of marking pen better than another. Well, that got everyone all stirred up! This got me thinking that maybe my blog readers might like to know about my pen too? In case you don't already know, I am a scientist in my real job, that's right a regular nerd, still love me?? Anyway, I was using a Pigma pen and then a Millennium pen to do my writing but I didn't like how light the writing was. I also, even with the freezer paper behind it, didn't like how the tip of the pen catches in the fabric. Not really a smooth flow. We had these fine line markers at work and I thought, "hmmmm, I wonder if they will work on fabric?" So I borrowed one and used it and never looked back! Curious? Ok enough suspense, this is the pen.

The pen is made by Sarstedt a German company. They come in black, red, green and blue. Catalog numbers are 95954, 95956, 95955, and 95953 respectively. I found them on Amazon in a 10 pack. They flow well, leave a nice dark line and are indelible (I heat set mine with a dry iron too). They work great for labels too.

The other thing I wanted to talk about is a stone stamp my friend Yuki carved for me. Yes, you read that right, she carved it out of stone for me!!! The face of the stamp is about the size of your thumb nail. I have a few photos for you too. I love the little case she had for it too, see the bunnies on it? Adorable!

I put them by my ruler so you will know how small they really are. I had trouble getting a clear photo of the face of the stamp and the lid at the same time so here are 2 pics one is clearer in each of the shots. Notice the small bit of Japanese characters on the stamp? It is my name written in Japanese!!

She also found and gave me some stamp pads with fabric ink on them. I just ink up the stamp and use it on my quilt labels. If I make a quilt for donation or that I end up selling on ETSY, I just put my stamp on the quilt. I have shown examples of this on my labels in the past.

I hope you enjoyed this information and we will chat soon!
XOP