In the meantime, I also finished a commissioned quilt for a friend to give to her daughter-in-law who is expecting. This might be my favorite quilt yet, and I figured a few things out while working on this quilt!
First the quilt:
I machine-quilted on either side of the stitches to strengthen it, but I also think it makes it look more finished.
One of the things I've struggled with is machine binding. I've followed this tutorial before and just felt like I was fighting and wrangling my quilt the whole time --- it would be pulling and I had a really hard time keeping the stitch straight.
This time I made my binding 3" instead of 2.5" which helped a little. I don't like sewing binding with a 1/4" allowance because I find I'm fighting the feed dogs the whole time - they want to push it over when I try to ride that line. But even with the 3" I was fighting it.
Then I tried something that I hate doing as a sewer... I pinned it. What a difference!!! I know some quilters that pin every single seam and that's just not my style; I want to get straight to the sewing. But this is one of those cases where pinning really is essential. I pinned horizontally and ran over the needles while I sewed and it moved through the seam flawlessly. I think it also helped that I pinned in small amounts as I sewed - I stopped every foot or so and pinned the next foot.
This quilt is hands down the "cleanest" quilt I've made yet - the lines are really straight and even. I'm so happy with it!
Here's a couple other baby/crib sized quilt tops I've finished in the last few weeks also:
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