My 1990s quilt has a lovely, new, contemporary binding! It’s my 7th Make Nine finish for 2024—fulfilling the Mend/Upcycle prompt.
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| A scrappy 4-patch Sawtooth Star quilt from the 1990s with its new binding. |
The original scrappy binding
The original binding on this quilt was a wider binding (about 1” wide) and very scrappy. Over the years, the edges became frayed. It was due for mending and an upcycling.
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| Frayed binding in need of repair. |
The binding also had areas of fabric fading—likely because I used fabrics that were not “quilt shop quality.” In my defense, as a new quilter, I had not yet been introduced and exposed to quilt shops, quilt guilds, and larger quilt shows with their variety of fabric vendors that attend them.
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| The front and back of a section of the binding shows a faded fabric. |
But this quilt is well loved and worth a repair! I chose “Stitched and Bound,” one of the new 2.5” Edition bindings from Art Gallery Fabrics for the mend.
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| "Stitched and Bound" 2.5" binding strips. |
The new binding for this 1990s quilt was cut, attached, and the frayed edges were covered. Here is my tutorial for piecing the binding strips on the bias with a glue basting method.
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| The new binding will cover and conceal the original frayed binding. |
Four-patch Sawtooth Star blocks
As a new quilter, I was (and still am) enamored with scrappy quilts. The 4-patch Sawtooth Star block pattern has infinite possibilities for “scrappiness” and I can still remember how fun it was to choose fabric colors and values and arrange the units of these blocks. I used a variety of fabrics—wovens, prints, novelty prints, plaids, checks, florals, reproduction prints… whatever fabrics I had collected... they are all here.
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| Yarn-dyed wovens (small plaids) are mixed with various prints. |
The quilt is also a sampling of other techniques I was learning as a new quiltmaker—machine quilting (with a walking foot), and a little hand quilting as well.
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| A mix of walking-foot quilting and hand quilting. |
The Challenge of mitered corners with two bindings attached
With the old and new bindings both attached, there was a lot of bulk at the corners. So the miters of the new binding are a little “soft” [read: rounded]. But this is part of the mend and upcycle process. I had to remind myself that this is not a new quilt. But the new binding is a double fold, fully filled, and firm! I consider it a quite well-done mend.
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| Mitered corners with the new binding attached. |
With this mend, you can see the new binding as well as the original binding—a feature of my “time span” quilt that I really like!
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| Both the original and new bindings can be seen on this time-span quilt. |
I chose the X pattern on the binding to be on the front side of the quilt. A reminder that this is a hand-made quilt. I discovered that the original binding was secured by machine. The new binding was stitched on the back by hand.
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| The 2.5 Edition bindings have design options. The Xs are on the front side. The hash marks are on the back side. |
This fulfills the “Mend/Upcycle” project for Make Nine 2024.
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| "Mend/Upcycle" prompt for Make Nine 2024 is complete. |
Just two more projects to complete for 2024.
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| Make Nine 2024 tracker, July 2024. |
