New Titanium Shoulder Jewelry and The Saga of the Satin Binding



Satin Binding In Progress!

Hello, Internet!  I'm three days post-surgery and my arm is out of the sling for the first time today.  I did take the prescription pain meds this morning but they should have worn off by now, and so far I'm doing okay.  Let's hope it's onwards and upwards from here on out!

14 Screws Later: My New Titanium Shoulder Jewelry

I started binding my Amish Baby 54-40 or Fight baby quilt yesterday.  You'll remember that I stitched a placement line for the inside edge of the satin binding with water soluble basting thread.  That turned out to be a great idea.  The idea of how I was going to use temporary fabric glue stick to position the satin binding on the front and back side of the quilt didn't work out. 

The glue stick adhered okay to the cotton fabric of the quilt top, but did not want to stick to the plush Minky backing fabric at all.  Also I am cramming a little more quilt into the binding to give it sort of a padded effect, and the glue stick just doesn't hold strong enough for that.  So instead, I'm using extra-fine, long silk pins in a three step process, one side of the quilt at a time.  First I pin the satin binding just barely covering my placement line on the front of the quilt:

Pinning the Top Edge Only to Basted Placement Line

Then I pin the opposite edge of the satin binding on the back side of the quilt, again just covering the line of basting stitches:

Pinning the Back Edge of Satin Binding to Basted Placement Line

Finally, I place pins on the front of the quilt going through all three layers, perpendicular to the edge of the satin binding.  I remove the parallel lines of pins from the top and bottom of the satin binding as I'm going along:

Perpendicular Pins Added Through All Three Layers

Only the Perpendicular Pins Remain for Stitching

I actually missed a few pins from the underside of the quilt when I stitched the first side of the satin binding down, and they caused my presser foot to get stuck.  I also had to be careful to slide the pin heads out of the way just before my presser foot came to them (as you see me doing in the above photo).  I'm using my walking foot on my Bernina 750QE with Triple Zigzag Stitch #7.  I'm using a size 80/12 Microtex needle and Mettler Poly Sheen 50 weight thread, and I did not need to make any adjustments to the default settings of stitch #7 in order to get good results.

First Corner Miter, Back Side

In the past when I've bound baby quilts with satin binding, I think I pinned it in place all the way around the quilt, miters and all, but this time I'm doing it one side at a time.  Since I've got so much quilt crammed tightly into my satin binding for that padded edge effect, I just couldn't control the miter until I had one side of the binding stitched all the way to the edge.  So I started the binding in the middle of one of the sides, went all the way to the corner, folded in the miter and pinned the next side of the quilt binding.  Then I was able to start stitching from the outer point of the mitered corner and continue down the entire side of the quilt in one pass.  Another benefit of stitching it this way is that I won't have any hand stitching to do to secure the mitered corners, and I can't do any hand stitching with a broken left thumb!

Rounding the First Corner

I'm trying to take it easy, but so far nothing is hurting my arm or shoulder so I'm going to see if I can't get another side of my satin binding pinned and stitched down today.  Enjoy your weekend and happy stitching!