At the weekend I finished the quilt top for my wall hanging assessment. The brown fabric works fine – enough contrast and quite how I imagined it. I am currently pondering how to do the quilting. As my C&G tutor Marie said: it would be great to link the quilting design with the initial inspiration in some way. Those are my feelings too. There was less variation/texture in the dyeing of the yellow fabric – it was different fabric to the blue, less crisp in the hand. It was interesting to see what a difference the fabric makes to the results of the dyeing. So I think I need to add some more texture with the quilting. Current thoughts circle around ripple effects. I need to go back to the original sources to get some more inspiration.
I briefly considered turning the quilt inside out with the backing and batting – I think known as the pillow case method – so as to have nothing showing around the edge. But on thinking about it, I decided that with a quilt this size, the quilting could alter the dimensions and take it off the square so I’ve decided that it is best to go the traditional route and quilt first and then use a binding. I wrote along these lines to Marie who suggested I used a turned back binding, similar to a facing. It wasn’t a method I had come across, but it is sound advice. I can avoid have a binding showing on the quilt front, but I can still quilt first and then square up and bind. Marie says it gives a tremendously sturdy finish to the quilt.
This quilt is taking much longer to produce than previous quilts, but I think the effort will be worth it in the end.
What a beautiful quilt – I would love to have that hanging in my house. I too would have suggested a turned back binding. It is something I learned about from Lesley Morgan at C2C and thought it was a wonderful idea. It is really worth considering it for the finish it will give to your quilt. Well done on the work done so far. I look forward to seeing it quilted.