My Sea Glass Wall Hanging is Done!

I spent the weekend doing some late spring cleaning around my house, so didn’t do any sewing at all. But I decided to dig in tonight and try to finish up the binding on this sea glass wall hanging. And I did it!

I just love how this turned out! I knew that I needed to get on top of finishing the binding right away because I don’t enjoy doing bindings. And if I waited too long this would have ended up in my UFO pile.

I don’t make bindings very often. I prefer to have my long arm quilter do them for me. And mine is willing to sew them by hand for a really good price. So I choose that route because I love a hand sewn binding. But I don’t love doing them myself.

Before I did the binding, I had to apply the fabric corners that would serve to hang the quilt. Here’s a basic tutorial for making the corners.

Here’s how I do my bindings. I sew the binding on the front of the piece using my walking foot.

On the corners, I sew to within 1/4 inch of the edge, and then sew a line diagonally from that point to the corner. Then I use the typical method for folding the fabric for the corner. And look at this gorgeous finished corner! Can’t get much better than this!

To join the two ends of the binding, I use a special tool that I purchased from Missouri Star Quilt Co a few years Ago. The tool works well, but I use it so seldom that it’s always sort of a mess and it’s never second nature.

I had a few bumbles with this, but it all worked out in the end. The ruler has instructions printed right on it and it helps you to mark and cut both ends of the binding to get a good join and fit. Rule number one — read and follow the directions!

I got to the point where I needed to join the two loose ends of the binding and decided to take our evening walk first and finish the binding later.

So I set it aside because I was worried that I’d screw it up by hurrying and not paying enough attention to what I was supposed to be doing.

Once it’s all sewn and joined, I press the binding flat and turn it to the back and press. Then I use a thin stream of glue to hold the binding in place and press that to adhere the glue to the fabric layers. I usually use Elmers, but have no idea where my Elmers is. I used this tacky glue instead. It’s water soluble so will wash out if this is ever washed. And the stream is so thin that it doesn’t cause stiffness.

Once that’s all glued down, I carefully stitch in the ditch from the front of the piece using my walking foot.

I prefer to not use any special stitch-in-the-ditch foot to do this even though I do have one. I find that I have really good control with my walking foot. I just have to go slow.

You can just barely see the ditch stitching in the photo below.

It doesn’t look quite that good from the back. But it looks ok.

Here’s the final stitches. It’s always nice to reach this point in a binding!

I will be gifting this for my friend for her birthday in August. I think she’s going to really like it. It will be fun to see her reaction.

I stopped at a local quilt shop on Friday on the way back from getting my car registered and they had some Aboriginal designs that I didn’t have in my stash. So, of course I had to buy some!

There’s some really gorgeous stuff in that pile.

I’m getting so many photos of Frankenbags from blog readers I can hardly keep up . If you’ve sent me photos and haven’t see them here, let me know.

This first bag tonight is from Anousch Eva Ka. There are some really fun orphan blocks in this, and I love the differences in value in the fabrics. And that pond spot is gorgeous for the lining!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Next up is another bag from Cherry Naylor. Cherry has made a number of these bags. I just love this one with the combo of the strong reds with the graphic black and whites. And I just love a happy little polka dot!

• 

• 

The next bag tonight is from Audrey Jones. I love these deep and bold colors with the graphic black fabrics. Audrey said she used a different and significant material on the interior of this bag. She said it was like working with sheet rock! It looks like it’s got some serious structure. She did a nice job of wrangling that difficult material.

• 

• 

• 

• 

This next bag was made by Mary Beth Henke. I really like this one! I love that fussy cut face she used. It’s such a nice focal point. She also added a zipper placket. I love seeing people taking that extra step to make these bags even more functional.

• 

• 

• 

Finally is this bag made by Eve Nicholls. Eve does all the piecing, quilting and bag construction by hand! I just love the improv piecing. It’s pretty bold and very interesting. And take a look at that spiral quilting. The bag is lined with needle cord (known in the US as corduroy). This one is pretty special.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Eve is really enjoying making these bags. This one is a gift for a friend in Italy.

Thanks to everyone who has sent photos! I think I’m going to make another Frankenbag next — maybe I’ll get back to some crumb piecing.