Three’s Company BOM 2018 – Quilting and Binding

Today we are talking – finishing the quilt and a little bit on binding.

I have been so excited to see your quilts pop up – they are turning out so wonderful!

I’ll show them off a little bit later (or you can quickly scroll down now)

All the parts and steps of the quilt have been compiled into one file – and it’s available in the shop. *previous quilt alongs are also in there!

Since I followed along this year, I made a second one- I went a little crazy on the border, but I really like how it turned out.

Here is the original quilt:

Let’s talk about the quilting of the quilt.  Now that your top is finished, it’s time to decide what kind of quilting you will use on the quilt to finish it up! This is kind of the fun part and is pretty important to the look of the quilt.

It is really quite interesting to see the quilt before and after the machine quilting is done.  And, depending on the pattern you choose- it can change the whole look of the quilt.  Kind of weird and fun all at the same time!

There are a few options to go with-

• Overall quilt pattern:  this is where you don’t really pay attention to the quilt top itself, you simply pick a quilt design and go from the edge to the edge- not worrying about the pattern or the sashing or the blocks or the border. Just go for it.
• Quilting in lines: using a walking foot, you decide how close you want your quilting lines to be and then go from edge to edge again in one long line.  A cross hatch is fun to do as well.
• Quilting each section:  this is the type of quilting where you look at your quilt blocks, sashing and border and decide what to do in each section or part.  The sashing is quilted with it’s own design.  Each block is quilted in it’s own design.  You can go with one design for all the blocks, or they can be quilted individually.  The border is quilted in it’s own design.  You can choose feathers, swirls, straight lines, echo quilting or stitching in the ditch.  This is a great way to make the quilt look a little more ‘custom’ as the design isn’t overall and set individually in the sections.

Quilting helps and tutorials:

• Quilting in straight lines – video tutorial
• Machine quilting with your standard sewing machine
• Preview your quilting designs– tutorial using page protectors
• Meander quilting – video tutorial

Now that the quilting is all taken care of, let’s review binding for a quick minute.

There are a couple of options for binding: 

• Bind from the backside: this is where you use the backing fabric and fold it over a couple of times and use this as the binding.  It’s quick and easy, but you do have to be careful when you are prepping for this.  You have to cut the batting and front smaller then the backing and it can get nicked if you aren’t careful. Just a heads up.
• Bind using bias:  this isn’t necessary for this quilt as you aren’t doing scallops or curved borders.  If you are planning on that, you will want to use the bias strips so it can ease around those curves nicely.
• Simple binding: you’ll be cutting strips and then using those strips as you binding. You can prefold all the binding with a binding maker or you can just use the strips and fold it yourself after stitching it down.

Additional binding helps and tutorials:

• How to make bias tape binding tutorial
• How to sew your bias tape strips together
• How to use the bias tape maker
• Binding at the corner– how to make it look good
• How to bind– using the backing fabric

Because the quilt along is over, the free patterns have been removed- however, you can pick up the full pattern in the shop.  No hopping around from post to post to find the instructions and get the download.

Super simple- 1 file with everything included.

-> Pick up the pattern in the shop: Three’s Company Quilt Pattern

Three’s Company Quilt Along- Finished by others!

ABOUT THE QUILT:

It features 9 quilt blocks.but within each block there are 3 blocks. So they will take just a little bit longer to sew- so we will be sewing them together on a monthly schedule.

It’s at a pace that you should be able to keep up on.  There are 3 smaller blocks inside each block, but they are the same so you’ll be repeat sewing or you can sew them in a chain sort of way to save on time.

The blocks are all set the same as well, so again, while the blocks are bigger- they are manageable to sew on a monthly basis.

You can now pick up the whole pattern in the shop: Three’s Company Quilt Pattern

For all posts in this series, visit the quilt along here.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

I seriously am so excited to see the quilts and how they have turned out. It’s been a fun year watching your blocks come in and the progress that you each have made with your quilts and with learning quilting.

Thank you for sewing along and taking this journey with me.

I look forward to 2019 block of the month: Garden Walk Quilt Along

You can find more info here: Garden Walk Quilt Along 2019

Quick info:

Layout option #1: Center only. You’ll be ending this quilt top with a finished size of 25″ X 25″
June will be the last step for just this option.

Layout option #2: Full quilt top. You’ll be ending this quilt top with a finished size of 56″ X 56″
This option will go from July to October.

You can pick up the quilt along –included in the 2019 Patchwork Planner!!!

Buy it here

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