Blockheads v.s. Times Square Quilt --- A hidden quilt binding.

Each time when I sat down to write about this quilt I ended up writing about a quilt that I have just 'freshly' made. This quilt was one of my UFO that took me over a year to complete. It is intending for my son, as he has grown out of this old quilt, which you can see from here. So I decided to make one that will last for longer, at least for a couple of years. This pattern, as well as my previous Hootenanny quilt, both are designed by Boo Davis. You can find the pattern in her book "Dare to be square quilting."

The piecing for Blockheads quilt is relatively easy, it is based on the housetop block design. What took me so long was those cute smiley faces as I decided to hand stitch each and every one of them. There are 29 smiley faces in total, and I must admit hand stitching is not as much fun as I had imagined, even with the TV on. It is a test of patience and I could only hand stitch one or two at a time and then I am off working on other quilts!

I am not sure if there is a right way of hand stitching, but I basically following the Stitching Tips and Tricks from Melly & Me. Melanie McNeice is the driving force behind Melly & Me. She does make quilts but you might know her from her bright and colourful fabric collections, or her famous contemporary, cute and funky toy and bag sewing patterns. Having no formal training or friends who could sew I had many challenges when I fist began quilting. When I felt frustrated with the lack of skills I had I turned to Melly & Me's sewing pattern. I made a few toys using her pattern, and built up my sewing confidence from there.

The colour scheme I have chosen for this quilt are Kona Cotton's Papaya and Cyan Blue, Cotton Couture's Bright White and Prima Homespun's Green Apple from my local spotlight shop. I use matching treads for my stitching.

For this quilt I use hidden / invisible binding, or also known as knife-edge binding. What I want to achieve for this quilt is the minimal, clean look. So I don't want the binding to frame this quilt and distract the square blocks.

There are many blogs that will show you how to create a hidden binding but I use this method with a slight variation. As this is my this time sewing a hidden binding I cut 2.5" for my binding strips instead of 2". Additionally, instead of "fold and press under 1/2" on one side of each binding strip" as my final binding edge to hand stitch the binding I folded and press the binding strips in half and sew it onto the edge of the quilt. Just like how you would normally sew the binding. I prefer this way because the edge is only slightly thicker but since it is folded in half you don't have to take time or worry about pressing a consistent 1/2" for binding. All you need is to use iron and press the binding to the back of the quilt and you are ready to hand stitch your binding like you normally would.

The pictures below will show you what the binding would look like from the side and the back of the quilt.

Using this method of binding means there are wider than normal strips of binding can be seen at the back of the quilt. Hence you really need to plan your fabric choice more carefully so the binding fabric and the backing fabric would blend in. In my case I use  Cotton Couture's Bright White for both binding and backing fabric.

The back of the quilt I use the same colour scheme as the front. This simple and elegant pattern is called Times Square Quilt from the book Vintage Quilt Revival: 22 Modern Quilt Design from Classic Blocks By Katie Clark Blakesley, Lee Heinrich, and Faith Jones. This is one of my favourite quilt book, where you can see solids or near solid fabrics at play with the pattern design. The end result is the clean defined quilt block arranged in a modern twist, giving each quilt block a brand new look.

Now that it's finished it's time to give it a wash and enjoy it!

Thank you for stopping by. Erica.