All about edges

Its amazing how much gets done with 1-2 hours a day free to sew!  I'm back with some thoughts on edging for quilts ... not sure this applies to the raw edge of anything else but you never know.

The easiest and quickest way to finish a raw edge is not to have one in the first place. To make these three mug rugs

I upscaled from this tutorial which uses 5" squares from charm pack
http://fabricmill.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/holiday-mug-rug-tutorial.html,

I made 8" squares from scraps with the slash and insert technique from the Craftsy class I'm taking. As the tutorial shows you the raw edges are all hidden by the turning inside out manouvre -no binding needed.  And they are just  the right thickness to protect a table top from the heat.


Then I found this helpful website entry showing how to use backing as binding
 http://quiltingintherain.blogspot.fr/2010/06/quick-quilt-binding.html

and used that method for these.

Not so good when the backing is different from any of the top fabric... but I am using up my stash and had little choice as this needed two quite large 'scraps". I topstitched the front edge on in the same thread and the quilting and it blends in well. Verdict: I'd use it again but found it tricky to get mitred corners so need more practice at that.

And now for my mistakes. I tried to use single fold binding using up some two inch strips and that looked awful. The would-have-been a mug rug is now in the rag bag in our puppy nursery.

The puppies are expected next week  ... my mistake will make a great mopping up cloth and there'll be lots of that to do when Miss Ali goes into labour.

She has a very posh box for her delivery ... heated pads, overhead lamps, and lots of my trial and error quilting from when I first used the frame to free motion quilt.


I'm off now to hand finish some double binding used to edge four more placemats ... yes, it involved making lots of binding (mine was scrappy, no surprise there), machine stitching this to the quilt and carefully mitring the corners  but it always gives a good finish. There maybe photos tomorrow.