Week in Review 2019 - 02/22

Cohasset Sunrise
Note how dramatically the values
change around the perimeter of the piece.

One of the difficulties of regular blog postings is coming up with something new to say, or at least a new way to say the same thing. It helps that my blog is about my artwork, since most weeks I have made visible progress with my work. This week is no exception. However, how exciting is it to write about binding a quilt?

You may recall Cohasset Sunrise from several weeks back. I interrupted my finishing work on it, while I attended to various challenge deadlines I wanted to meet. Deadlines met, it was time to begin finishing Cohasset Sunrise. There are many ways to finish the outer rim of a quilt. Most fall into two general categories, binding and facing.  The difference between the two is that binding acts like a frame of the work it surrounds, whereas facing turns the raw edge to the back of the quilt, covering it in the facing. When to choose one over the other is a matter of aesthetics. In the case of Cohasset Sunrise, I have opted for binding.

If you look closely you can see how I change the binding
fabric dependent on its location on the quilt. Cohasset
Sunrise required 300" of bias binding. I used five
different fabrics to make the necessary binding.

Once the decision to bind the quilt is settled, the next step is to select the binding fabric. When I first started binding, I assumed incorrectly, that only one fabric for the full quilt should be used. This comes from having a traditional quilting background. In a traditional quilt it is typical for there to be rows of quilt blocks stitched together, surrounded by one or more borders, with the binding being attached to the final border. Therefore, the binding fabric should work next to the border, and perhaps be drawn from one of the fabrics used in the blocks to tie the quilt together visually. Art quilts, are rarely so predictable. A binding fabric that works well in one part of the quilt may be distracting in another. It has become my habit, when binding an art quilt makes the most sense, to change the binding as frequently as needed, so it is never distracting, but blends with its adjacent fabrics. This is what I have done with Cohasset Sunrise.

Although it isn't necessary, this
bias binding tool makes
placing the bias binding folds
so easy.

My favorite method of making my own binding is to use the continuous bias strip method. The trick for me is figuring out how much binding I will need, and how much fabric is required based on my need. This is relatively easy to do when you have a length of fabric, since the equation is readily available.  But what if I have lots of odd rectangles, say a 9" x 15" piece of one fabric and a 12" x 19" of another. How do I calculate how much binding I can get from each. I couldn't find a formula on the internet for that equation and was struggling to come up with one on my own. My husband to the rescue. Here is the equation should you ever be in the same bind (pun intended).

L (length of fabric) divided by WB (width of binding strip) round down to nearest whole integer x W (width of fabric) = LB (length of binding).

If you have a 9" x 15" piece of fabric and your binding strip is 2" wide you plug into the formula this way:

9/2 = 4.5
4 x 15 = 60

Therefore, you get 60" of binding from a 9" x 15" piece of fabric.

I am linking up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.