Matching or accent binding?

For years I used the same fabric for binding a quilt as I used in the last border.  It was a rule.  I don't know where I heard it or saw it or who came up with it, but it was a rule and I followed it.  Over the last few years I have pretty much thrown that "rule" out the window and started having fun with my binding choices.

Still, this weekend I chose to bind Patchwork Wishes in the same fabric as I used in the border.

Sewing binding on is pretty boring, so my mind tends to wander.  This time it wandered and wondered if there was any pattern to my binding choices. When do I choose matchy-matchy and when do I chose a contrast?  When I choose a contrasting binding, do I choose a reads-as-solid or a print?

I might have taken a small break to scroll through my quilt photos. Here are some trends I found in my quilts, complete with some brand new close-up photos of some bindings.

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Quilts without borders

When the "border" matches the background, or if there is no border, I usually choose a contrasting binding to act as a frame.  

Fabulous Phlox

Rush

Quilts with light borders

When a quilt has a light-colored borders, a darker binding adds a more solid edge to the quilt.  It also will show dirt less than a light binding would.

Boxed Kisses

Sprinkled

Quilts with pieced borders

When there's a lot happening in borders already, as in the case of a pieced border, a contrasting border might be one extra detail too many.  In the two quilts below, I used a matching binding to avoid pulling the eye away from the pretty pieced borders.

Positivity Squared

Prairie Mix

Quilts with prints in the border

I used fabrics that read more solid to corral the prints in the borders of these quilts.

Knotted

Crossings

Notice that Crossings also has a pieced inner border, so obviously the "matching binding when there's a pieced border" above is not a hard and fast rule!

Prints or Stripes for extra interest

Most of my quilts end up with a fairly plain binding, but every now and then the right print comes along to add a little pop.  

Sailing School

Saling School also belongs in the "quilt with no borders" category, but repeating a print from the quilt really kicked the binding up a notch.

Stripes can be stricky.  You need to find a striped print with colors that go really well with the fabrics in your quilt, but if you do, it can be really fun, like the diagonal stripe on Tic Tac Who - puppy version.

Tic Tac Who

A print binding against a solid border can also work.

Focus Squared

Repeating a border accent

Multiple borders with a binding that repeats the fabric from an inner border can emphasize the idea of the border as a frame.  It reminds me of a picture frame with molding.  You can see that in Focus Squared above, as well as in Starlight Plaid below.

Starlight Plaid

Scrappy quilts and other quilts with scrappy bindings

With busy scrappy quilts, I can go either way:  a quiet solid binding to contrast with the busy scrappy center, or a scrappy binding to embrace the scrappiness.

Quilter's scrapbook has a lot going on in the scrappy blocks, as well as the pieced border, so the red binding matching the border avoids adding one more element to the mix.

Quilter's Scrapbook

None of my pictures of scrappy quilts with scrappy bindings really show the binding well enough to illustrate.  My Temperature quilt isn't technically a scrap quilt, but it does have a scrappy look and the scrappy binding repeating all the colors works really well.

Temperature quilt

Temp quilt back - because this is a better picture of the scrappy binding :)

I also like to use up leftover strips if there are some several leftover after making a quilt top with precut 2 1/2" strips.

Star Chips

Matchy-matchy bindings

After all that analysis, you may wonder if I still use matching binding.  I do.  Not very often, but I do.  Genrerally, I'll use binding that matches the border if there's a lot happening visually in the rest of the quilt and I feel it doesn't need to have yet another element stand out.  That was the case for Patchwork Wishes which I bound this weekend.

Patchwork Wishes - pattern release coming soon!

(Patchwork Wishes will get it's very own post soon!  Stay tuned.)

Tell me about your binding choices. Do you have any guidelines you follow?  Do you like your binding to fade into the background or pop with color?  Any favourite successes or some you wish you had chosen differently?

Happpy quilting,

Joanne

PS: You can read about how I machine bind my quilts here.

Where did this scrap come from?

I pulled scraps recently to start testing a new design.  I chose a blue and white color scheme because my blue scrap bins are overflowing and I hoped to make a dent in the blue collection (Spoiler:  This quilt did not make noticeable inroads into the blue scraps.)

A tiny portion of the blue scrap stash

These are most of the bits I chose, and pulling them did lower the level in the blue bin, but then I didn't use up every fabric so the level in the bin went back up again after I had cut everything I needed and put the rest back

Back when I made Quilter's Scrapboook in 2013, with scraps from my first 13 years of quiting, I could remember which fabric each scrap came from. Guess what? I can't remember most of those anymore. It was finish #25, 109 quilts and 12 years ago.  I now have a lot of scraps I can't identify, but I did pretty well with this stack of blues.  There are some I can't quite place.  The bright blue with tiny stars, under fabric #3 above, is driving me nuts.  I feel I should know that one but can't place it at all!

Just for grins and giggles, here's where the ones I identified came from:

1. Snowflake tote bag 2016
2. Simply Snow 2019
3. Hoarfrost 2016
4. Backing from Clear Skies 2013
5. Window valance 2004
6. Blue frosty versions of Geese Across the Table 2019 and Hovering 2022
7. Twist 2008
8. Rush and Side Trails 2023
9. Jelly Bean Stars 2012
10. Which Way North 2015
11. Focus Squared (I think!) 2021
12. Sprinkled (the blue one) 2020
13. Forty-Eight (AKA Seeing Stars) 2014

Here's the scrap I'm most excited about:

I didn't think about it much as I cut up the last of it for this quilt, but as I sewed I let my mind wander.  When I picked up this square, the thought that this just might be the backing from my very first quilt popped into my brain and wouldn't let go.

Can it be?  I've browsed through all my quilt pictures.  (It's not like I had anthing else to do.  Ahem. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)  I can't think of what else it might be from, but it could have been the backing of that first quilt.  I texted my brother, who owns it now, but he's not a fabric guy, so he couldn't say for sure.  The quilt is at his cabin, and he was not at the cabin, so I am still awaiting confirmation. 

All that to say I might have just used up the last bit of my very first fabric scrap, over 25 years later.

If you're curious about my first quilt, pop over to  Leanne's Devoted Quilter blog, where she interviewed me for her "My First Quilt" series.  You can read about why I made it, how I made it, and how I almost kept it.  Here's a peek:

I'd love to hear about your oldest scraps, or really any of your scraps.  Do you find it hard to use up the last piece of something?  Do you remember what project you bought the fabric for? Do you like to think about where you used the fabric in the past, or are you focused on the project at hand?  Let me know in the comments!

Happy quilting,

Joanne

Colour Value Mystery Solved: Evening Light

 My Colour Value Mystery Quilt-Along (QAL) wrapped up last Thursday.  Over 1200 quilters signed up to receive the clues.  I don't know how many sewed every week, but I was excited and inspired to see all the different versions taking shape as some chose to share their progress in the Quilting with Canuck Quilter Facebook group. 

The theme of this QAL was how different fabric choices and value placements can affect the design of a quilt.  I made two versions using the same fabric and the same pattern but using the fabrics for different elements in each quilt.  Here's how that worked out.

Evening Light by Canuck Quilter Designs
Traditional version on the left, modern version on the right.

I find it fascinating how my eye is drawn to different parts of the design in each version.  In the version on the left, I see rows of chunky starburst.  In the version on the right, my eye places equal, if not stronger, emphasis on the groupings of four 3D pillars where the blocks meets and the white star seems more delicate.

This design is Evening Light, originally released in 2021.  I have updated the pattern with guidance on choosing fabrics to make the traditional (on the left above) or modern (on the right above).  

I tried to include dual illustrations, showing the appropriate colour values for each version, but that made the pattern cluttered and confusing, so I settled for illustrations showing the values for the modern version.  If you're making the traditional version, use the color/fabric key to help make sure you're using the correct fabric at each step.  You can read more about colour keys here.  If you need help figuring out relative colour values, your might like to view your fabric selections in grayscale.

Have you experimented with swapping color values or otherwise moving them around in a design?  How did it turn out?

Happy quilting,

Joanne

Pattern available as a download in my Etsy shop

Field of Leaves

I love quilts with leaf blocks.  Scattered Leaves, the first quilt pattern I ever wrote featured leaf blocks, and I've written a few more over the years.   When Island Batik sent me an advance peek of their Earth Essence collection,  I couldn't help myslef.  I designed another leaf quilt.  

Field of Leaves by Canuck Quilter Designs.
Fabrics from Earth Essence by Island Batik, a division of Lumin Fabrics
Photo by Jerry Khiev of Lumin Fabrics

I'm really pleased with the leaf block in this one.  In many of my previous leaf quilts there was a tiny bit of paper-piecing in the center leaf tip.  This one is FPP-free.  Stitch-and-flip corners make all the angles super simple.

Closeup of leaf block in Field of Leaves
Fabrics from Earth Essence from Island Batik, a division of Lumin Fabrics

I had to fiddle a little bit with a frame around the leaf to get the leaf centered in the setting I chose, but I think it was worth it.

The alternate blocks could not be simpler.  They are squares cut from strip sets.  Easy peasy.

Field of Leaves by Canuck Quilter Designs
Fabrics from Earth Essence from Island Batik, a division of Lumin Fabrics

Another favourite feature?  This quilt requires no sashing and no borders!  I'm not a fan of measuring and sewing sashing and borders.  I do it because sashing and borders can be really useful and important design elements, but it's always fun to come up with something that doesn't need either.

Obviously, the golds and earth tones of this version strongly suggest fall, but go ahead and imagine something different.  Take a look at what Anja of Anja Quilts made with this pattern.  

Field Of Leaves quilt top made by Anja of Anja Quilts

Anja reports that different Kona cotton reds are very close in value. I can see some variation here if I look closely.  I'll keep that in mind when I select reds for my own red and white version, but honestly I think it looks stunning even with very little value difference.  It could be a two fabric quilt.

A scrappy version would probably look fabulous too.  I'm on a scrappy bender right now, trying to use some up to make room for more.  I wonder if I have enough red scraps?  Maybe I should dig into my fall rusts and oranges.  I wonder if I could bring myself to just throw all the colors together?  Probably not.  I know myself!  I need control of the scrappy!

I'm off to dig in my scraps.  I'll report more on that later.

Happy quilting,

Joanne

Field of Leaves is available as a pattern download
 in my Etsy shop, or you can ask your
 favorite quilt shop for a print version.

Shifting Crystals

 I'm excited to share Shifting Crystals with you! 

Shifting Crystals by Canuck Quilter Designs
Made with fabric from the Fossil Finesse collection from Island Batik, a division of Lumin Fabrics

It needs another photo shoot.  My supportive husband trekked out with me on a very cold January day so we could take pretty pictures before I shipped the quilt to Island Batik for their April catalog.  By the time we photographed this quilt my fingers were freezing.  I landed flat on my back when I slipped on the ice.  I was ready to be done and rushed through. I think I might manage better pictures now that the quilt is back home and the weather has warmed up.  

The chevrons in this design are strip-pieced, so they are quick and easy to make.  If you've made Leading Edge or Echo Point you know how these work.  The key to making these is the diamond-shaped segments cut from the strip sets.  The pattern illustrates and explains how to measure the diamond segments, but you might also find this tutorial helpful.  Just remember you should NOT be measuring along the top edge of the strip.  Trust me.  Just check out the tutorial and the instructions and email me if you still need help!

What about the stars?  These all all made with stitch-and-flip tecniques, without cutting and sewing individual triangles.  If you find it challenging to trim QST so the seams stay on the diagonal to get the crisp star points in these stars, scroll down to the last part of my QST tutorial to see how I do it. 

I spent some time mulling over pressing directions for these stars.  Press to one side?  Press open? There are some intersections with the potential for a lot of bulk.  In the end, I figured out it was possible to plan the pressing to spin the seams allowances in all those potentially bulky spots, including in the blocks and between blocks.  The pattern walks you through all of it, showing what direction to press and spin so that everything flows together, rather like the seams in the 9-patch in this tutorial.

What colours would you choose to make this quilt?  I'm considering rusts and earth tones for a version with extra columns to fit a queen sized bed.  The pattern is single size, but it would be easy to expand by adding columns and making the top and bottom colour blocks taller.  So many possibilities...

Happy quilting,

Joanne

Extending the life of a favourite quilt

After almost 6 years of daily use,  my daughter's bed quilt came back home with me for some TLC last August.  When I visited my daughter last summer, she showed me several places where the hand quilting was coming out.  

Broken hand quilted stitching

I thought there were only a few spots and expected to make a some quick repairs while I was visiting, but when we went over the blocks indivudually, there were many, many spots with broken stitching.

More broken hand quilted stitching

It looks like the thread just broke in multiple places.  In hindsight, I realize the thread I used to quilt was rather old, and probably not very strong anymore.  Cue daughter's sad face.  For life reasons, this quilt means a lot, so the quilt came home with me so I could ponder the best way to extend its life.

I thought I could pull out stitches on either side of each break so I could knot and bury the thread to secure the stitching, then stitch new stitches in the gaps.  After mulling this over for a while, it occurred to me that if the thread of the original stitches had broken in so many places, more breaks would inevitably pop up after I repaired the current breaks.

Re-quilting the whole quilt by hand wasn't an option.  It took me a year and a half to quilt it the first time, and that was before I started getting tingling in my fingers after less than a half hour of stitching.

Machine quilting was one option, but daughter and I both wanted to preserve the look of the hand stitching.  In the end, I came up with a compromise.

Walking foot quilting in the ditch

I'm going to stitch in the ditch along all the curves.  I had hand quilted in the ditch originally, so those stitches are being covered up by the machine quilting, but it's hidden in the ditch so it won't change the look of things much.

All the visible hand stitching will stay as is.  Some will inevitably disappear where the thread has broken or will break, but some will survive and hopefully maintain the original character of the quilt.  The machine quilting in the ditch is dense enough to keep the layers together no matter what happens to the hand stitching.

It's a bit of a chore to turn the quilt, especially when lots of it need to go through the machine's throat space.

Lots of bunching to get through the throat

A little easier when there's less quilt on the right and more on the left...

I think it looks OK on the back too. If you look carefully you can make out the machine stitching over old hand quilting, the hand quilting I'm leaving as is, and a break in the original stitching.

I think it's going to work out.  I just need to keep plugging away a little each day so I finish the quilting in time to take it back to British Columbia next month when we attend her graduation from UBC.

Just keep stitching, just keep stitching...

Joanne

Pattern was Chic Country by Sew Kind of Wonderful. 
I added borders and tweaked the colours in the edge blocks to blend into the border.

PS:  If you would like to see the evolution of this quilt, I blogged about it in progress many times

• March 2016 - First peek at the fabric pull
• November 2016 - Starting to cut fabric
• January 2017 - Starting to piece and failing random colour placement
•  February 2017 - Redesiging the border and finishing the top
• January 2018 - hand quilting progress
• August 2018 - progress update
• January 2019 - finshed quilt on the blog (finished in late December)

Spinning multiple intersections

When we speak of spinning seam allowances when pressing, it's often in reference to one seam intersection in one block, such as at the center of a four-patch block. What happens when there are more than one intersection along a long seam?

Let's take a look at a nine-patch.

First, if you need to know what I mean by spinning seams or need a refresher about how it's done, go read this post.  Make sure to read all the way to the end for the spinning part. Go ahead.  I'll wait.

OK, back to the nine-patch: 3 rows of 3 squares. Here's the start of one, with squares sewn into rows.  The white arrows show the directions in which I pressed seams in each row.  By pressing the seams in the middle row in opposite directions to the seams in the other rows, I'll be able to nest and spin the seams.

Here's what that looks like on the back after I sew the top and middle row together.  The new seam is the horizontal one in the photo, not yet pressed.

Let's take care of the seam intersection on the left first.

You see that the center portion of the horizontal seam will end up pressed towards the top row.  That works out just right, as this direction is also the direction it needs to be to spin the seams at the second seam intersection as well, as you see below.

Adding the next row of squares, nesting seams, looks like this:

Spining one intersection sets the stage for spinning the other as well.

You can see how all the seam intersections are nice and flat.  

Note that I could have reversed all the pressing directions in the very first picture.   As long as they allowed seams to nest in the next step, I still would have been able to spin the seams at the intersections.  They simply would have spun in opposite directions to what is pictured here.

This example used a plain nine-patch, but it would also work where some or all parts of the nine-patch are pieced units.  You just need to plan pressing directions at each step to nest all seams when joining rows.  The following block is a fine example.

The white arrows show the pressing directions to press seams between units so that you can nest seams when joining rows. 

Spinning seams at one intersection will flow into the seams being oriented properly to spin seams at the next intersection, and so on.

This may seem a little daunting at first, but it will really make sense when you start pressing.  Just remember to always start with pressing to nest seams, and the rest will flow from there.

Of course, there will be occasions where you will end up with an intersection that can't be spun,  but I find it's always worth spinning wherever I can to minimize bulky seam intersections.

Have you tried spinning seams?  Do you have any tips to share?  Let me know in the comments.

Happy quilting,

Joanne