I struggled with quilting to the very edge of my quilts and wondered how everyone else did it. I looked in all my quilts books for the "how to do it" with no luck. I Googled quilting to the edge and still found nothing. Just how did everyone quilt to the edge of their quilts easily? How do you quilt to the edge, to the inner binding edge, without going over it, if there isn't a guideline?
I tried drawing a guideline, but that just did not work well. It still was a difficult task.
Maybe the instructions for quilting to the edge are out there, but I never found them. So I came up with my own method. And here it is!!!
I cut 10 strips the length of a piece of fabric I had on hand. (I cut 10 strips because I can never work on just one quilt at a time!!) The strips measured 5" X 81". I cut two strips smaller to use with my smaller quilts.
I baste the quilt extensions to the outer border using the size of binding I am planning on for each individual quilt. Once the quilting is done, the basting is really easy to remove in preparation for the binding.
The little quilt below will measure 20 1/2" X 24 1/2" when finished. The quilt extensions have been sewn on and pressed. You can see that I do not trim the extensions to fit the quilt as I will use them over and over again.
This quilt has been layered, and I have already begun machine quilting it. Now I can quilt right up to the outer edge easily with the quilt extensions.
The process takes a little longer with the additional sewing, but so worth it!! My machine quilting is so much easier now!!
And now you know the rest of the story. This is why I named my blog Quilt To The Edge :^)
Happy Quilting and keep those needles sharp!!! Martha
I tried drawing a guideline, but that just did not work well. It still was a difficult task.
Maybe the instructions for quilting to the edge are out there, but I never found them. So I came up with my own method. And here it is!!!
Quilting Extensions!!
I cut 10 strips the length of a piece of fabric I had on hand. (I cut 10 strips because I can never work on just one quilt at a time!!) The strips measured 5" X 81". I cut two strips smaller to use with my smaller quilts.
I baste the quilt extensions to the outer border using the size of binding I am planning on for each individual quilt. Once the quilting is done, the basting is really easy to remove in preparation for the binding.
The little quilt below will measure 20 1/2" X 24 1/2" when finished. The quilt extensions have been sewn on and pressed. You can see that I do not trim the extensions to fit the quilt as I will use them over and over again.
This quilt has been layered, and I have already begun machine quilting it. Now I can quilt right up to the outer edge easily with the quilt extensions.
And now you know the rest of the story. This is why I named my blog Quilt To The Edge :^)
Happy Quilting and keep those needles sharp!!! Martha
Great idea! And love that it represents your blog name!
ReplyDeleteVERY clever!! I have added extensions to quilts before - to make it easier to hand quilt them to the edge - but didn't even consider doing it to a quilt that I wanted to machine quilt - thanks for sharing!! - ;))
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