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I must admit that I am a high-tech quilter. I design all my quilting in Electric Quilt. I sew them all on a sewing machine (even the applique). I quilt them all on my longarm (with the computerized Intelliquilter module). When people ask what my least favorite part of quilting is, I usually respond "binding". This is the one piece that I typically perform by hand as I really like the look of a nicely tacked hand binding. While the look is great -- it is also time-consuming. A few weeks ago I received an e-mail with a link to site that had a new method of creating machine bindings. This technique creates a flange on the front of the quilt and the entire binding is done by machine. I am totally in awe of this technique and will be using it for all my donation quilts along with some of my own. The first page of the post is below (to whet your interest):  Magic Binding Tutorial I suggest reading the entire post by Aunt Marti. However here are a few of my observations after trying the technique.
A Use for the Binding - Last weekend Maple Grove Quilters worked on boys and girls charity quilts. Thanks for Stephanie for organizing this project. For the boys quilts we all needed to bring in a number of 8 inch finished pinwheels. For the girls quilts we needed to bring in 8 inch finished heart blocks. We divvied up the completed blocks and turned them into lap quilts. I think we managed to get at least six tops done on Saturday morning. I took a couple of them home to quilt electing to go with a fairly simple edge to edge pattern. Here is an example of one of the boys quilts that was quilted with a football pantograph (perfect for a young boy or man in your life):  Charity Boys Quilt with Football Pantograph  Magic Binding Close-up. The flange is 1/8" and was stitched on top of the red. Happy quilting.
Kari If you have taken your quilts to a longarm quilter you have probably realized that figuring out how much it is going to cost you can take a little bit of work. Some quilters charge by the square inch. Others charge by the square yard. Minimum charges are different. Thread costs are different. Then there is the batting charge. All of this confusion is the beauty of free enterprise. However, all you probably want to know is "how much is quilting my quilt going to cost" and "are there things I can do to influence the cost". I developed a quilting calculator to assist my current and future customers in understanding these factors. And it is something they can run on their own -- before they even pick up the phone to give me a call.  Quilting Calculator All you need to do is answer a few questions. First put in the dimensions. Then the type of quilting you are interested in. Selecting the level of quilting has the greatest amount of impact on your final cost. You can see how much more "light custom" is compared to "an edge to edge design". Not just the rate -- but the impact on YOUR quilt. Then a few "yes/no" questions. And you now have a final estimate.
On the left is an estimate for a 60 x 70 quilt with Edge to Edge Density 1. On the right that same quilt with Medium Custom. All I did was change the Level of Quilting from 1 (Edge to Edge Density 1 to 4 (Medium Custom). Descriptions of each level of quilting are on the website and I am in the process of taking and uploading some photo examples as well.
Happy quilting. Kari |
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Kari SchellElectric Quilt Expert and Educator and Pattern Designer. Categories
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