The only part of quilting I do not like is the binding. There you have it! It's true. Many of my quilting friends love the binding. Not me.
Occasionally a customer will ask me to do the binding for them. I usually say no and refer them to other quilters who are willing to do bindings. (I've paid them to do bindings on my own quilts.) But when I took in this Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt, I found myself saying yes. Have you ever done that? Found your mouth saying yes, when your mind is saying no! And this one even had 2 of 4 sides curved! Yikes!
Making the binding wasn't so bad. I even made a biased binding. Attaching the binding wasn't so bad either...even along the curves! The next two parts I do not like: Attaching the beginning and the end of the binding together AND sitting and hand-stiching it to the back.
A quilting friend of mine has the right attitude. She says the binding is a way for her to say goodbye to the quilt...that's when it's completely finished. I'm sorry, I have not ever felt that way.
As you can see, I did get it finished--grinding my teeth the entire time! And it came out lovely. But I did not enjoy it one bit. Of course the Purse Dog loved me sitting with her as I did the hand-stitching. We watched a couple of good movies together.
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Do you know of a link you can share with me that gives good, clear instructions on putting the beginning and ending of a binding together? Or perhaps you would like to email me some good tips. Email: quiltswithlove@sbcglobal.net Or perhaps you can just pat me on the shoulder and say, "There, there Vivian, next time say NO!"
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Now get back to work, Vivian!
Get back to machine quilting...that's the part of quilting you love!
