That looks nice and straight, doesn't it? Well, that is not exactly how it turned out. I did soak it and let it dry on the line for a while...when it was almost dry, but still moist enough to be stretched I taped it to the floor...this worked well and it came out dead straight.
I then tried Leah's method of attaching the binding by machine. Used a leftover binding that I had, trimming it to 2". Initially I was going to use a more fancy stitch , however got a bit lazy and just used a zig-zag stitch. This was difficult ...at first I pinned two sides but found that did not work that well for me. The pins were in the way and I did not seem to hit the line underneath. I then moved along without pins, using my trusted 'unpicking tool' to hold the binding in place. This was extraordinarily slow, but worked. Went around the whole thing in a painstakingly slow fashion, surprised that the mitred corners worked without a hitch.
The problem occurred afterwards...not sure why, but my edges were like tidal waves...I sprayed the piece with water and stretched it out again and it looks a bit straighter but it really wants to be wavy.
Not exactly sure what went wrong but something sure did...never mind, next piece will be better. Possible causes:
- usually I stitch my edges down about 1/8" from the raw edge just to secure the piece...maybe it needed this for stability.
- could the zig-zag stitch be too tight?
- did iron the binding over before attaching it and ..oops!...forgot that I was dealing with polyester batting...may have singed it in at least one spot...hm...that would not account for the wavy binding all around though.
- maybe I need to attach the binding a bit tighter all around. Had a similar problem not so long ago with a quilt that was fairly heavily quilted.
Overall, I did enjoy this immensely and would not mind trying another one.
Questions:
- bit confused about the blocking...do you always do the blocking before the binding?
- wavy binding...what could have gone wrong?
Until next time
Karin
