Binding + Bonding

In addition to some pre-Thanksgiving cooking, I’m going to spend the next few days getting a couple of quilts ready to bind. A lot of the Thanksgiving holiday is spent sitting around chatting so I figured my hands might as well be busy while my bum is resting. I have three quilts and a table runner that I’d like to bind over the holiday weekend. Overly ambitious? Maybe. But I do love to set the bar high.

I used to put off binding my quilts because making the binding seemed like such a process. Over my short time quilting (closing in on two years), I’ve learned a few tricks that make it simpler and faster….sssooo much faster. I whipped up that pile ‘o binding in around 30 or 45 minutes last night. My friend Michelle is a master at the art of quilt binding. Hers are always lovely and perfect. Custom bindings are actually something that we plan to offer in our shop soon, and I have a feeling they’ll be very popular.

Speaking of Michelle, she is such a bad influence on me. Our tastes are so similar that trouble ensues when we go shopping together.

Michelle: “That is such great thread. Look at the gorgeous colors.”

Me: “Oooh, it really is. I would love some more Pearl for hand quilting.”

Michelle: “You could use it for so many different projects. I would love to have some for embroidery.”

Me: “I am imagining it with Parisville! Wouldn’t those colors be just perfect for hand quilting?!…Do you want to split some?”

Michelle: “YES!”

That’s how you end up with 36 skeins of hand-dyed, top-of-the-line (read: pricey!) Pearl cotton. We split the purple set:

[purple frenzy by Valdani]

It really is gorgeous.