Binding is the Bottleneck (Friday Foto Fun #97)
So I remember a time where the bottleneck of my quilting process was the actual quilting of the quilt top. I still have a stack of quilt tops that need to be quilted, but I now also have a stack of quilt tops that are waiting to be bound. This stack of quilts is brand new.
I used to love binding. I make my own binding and I prefer to hand sew it down. But IT'S SO SLOW! And as I build my stack of finished quilts ready for binding... I need to get better and faster at machine binding, or I just end up with a stack of quilts waiting for the next step like my quilt tops. There is one good thing about this, I get to see all these quilt tops that I made in the past several years and finally get to make them finished quilts!
This is a table runner that I made with one of the Sew Sampler boxes months ago. I practiced on this table runner when I got my longarm set up. I'm not really sure I want to use this table runner, but I still feel like I should finish it one day. It still needs to be trimmed up to bind.
This baby quilt is one that I made over 3 years ago and has been in the to be quilted stack ever since! This was quilted the night Angela came over to teach me Prostitcher. This also needs to be trimmed to size.
This was a scrap quilt that I made maybe 2 years ago. I had gotten a scrap back of Mama's Cottage from April Rosenthal and made this fun quilt! I used a basic stipple all over to get it quilted. It's ready to bind and I even made the binding already!
This is my Hidden Stars quilt that I made during the Sew Along earlier this year. I finally got it quilted and trimmed, but I still need to make the binding!
This last quilt in the stack is my Pineapple Day quilt. I actually basted the quilt and very poorly straight line quilted it. I didn't trim it and decided that I should load it on the longarm and do an all-over design! I like it much better, but you can still see some of the straight line quilting. I don't think I ever identified a binding fabric for this quilt, so I still need to do that!
Where is your bottleneck? Is it binding or quilting?
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I have a stack of quilts that need quilted, not because I don’t want to do them but because customer quilts have priority. My bottleneck is trimming and sewing the binding to the front. I also like to hand stitch my bindings, so once I have it on the quilt I’m ready to stitch. It’s the prep part that I dislike so much! You have a lot of beautiful quilts to finish, there’s a lot of inspiration in your stack!
Do you finish your binding by hand or machine? I finally found a straight line binding technique on BluPrint that really works for me and it goes much faster than anything I have done so far. Just remember, if you made the whole thing by machine, you don’t have to put hand stitching on the binding! Please disregard if you are already doing this. LOL
My bottleneck is prepping the backing. I really drag my feet on it, so I’m thinking I need to use more wide backs. Wish I was close, I’d come over for a movie night and we could hand bind while we watched the show. I prefer hand binding too; there’s something soothing about the process (unless I’m under a deadline).
I love binding! Probably my favorite step after piecing the top. I do find that if I make the binding as soon as I finish the top (sometimes sooner), it helps. I do a lot of binding in the car on weekends when I’m not driving. I actually try to keep something in the binding stage at all times so I have stitching in the car!
Quilting is definitely my bottleneck. I’ve mastered machine binding, so I don’t mind doing binding.
I can relate to your bottlenecks. Back when I was quilting, it used to be the quilting that was the bottleneck. I eventually started to learn free motion and that eased. I never minded binding. Very pretty projects you have going on there! Thanks for sharing – and for hosting!
Definitely the quilting. I have a dozen tops of all sizes made waiting for quilting!! I don’t stall on bindings, love to hand bind, but then I don’t have a lot of large ones to bind.