Week in Review 2021 – 06/11

Listening

You spoke. I listened. You convinced me I was on the right path. Last week I asked for your opinion on how best to finish the outer edge of Sunrise Over the Atlantic. What struck me in particular about the comments and why it is such a delight to hear from you, is how many took the time to give their rationale behind their answer.

Drum roll please! The option with the highest number of votes is #1, a simple black binding. It is my choice, too. It was my first instinct. However, I felt it would be a good exercise to play around with other ideas. I tend to go with my gut, rather than exploring alternatives. It’s faster, easier and simply feels like a natural extension to my work.

Answering the Call

Now that I know where I am headed, a black binding, it is time to create the back side, or backing for Sunrise Over the Atlantic. Recently, I have been using leftover cuttings, pieced units and other remnants from making the top to create backings. Surprisingly, there weren’t many of these “gifts” to make the back side. So, instead, I opted to create the backing from fabric that has being languishing in my stash for decades. I always try to the reference the front, albeit this time the reference is a tad obscure. I let the palette guide me.

Note the 3″ black border surrounding the yellow pieced backing. It is important to make the backing and batting larger than the top itself. This is done for two purposes. First, it gives you something to hold onto when you come close to the edge of the top when free motion quilting. Second, quilting naturally shrinks the quilt. So, when you are squaring up the quilt (triming away the edges) most of the black fabric will be removed. Thus, the black binding on the front and back will look fairly similar, creating another reference to the top.

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