Invisible Binding?

I had a sudden burst of energy last night and got on with cutting, attaching and hand finishing the binding for Singing the Blues. I had an idea in mind, but wasn't sure I could execute it properly or that it would look good in actuality. What I wanted was a binding that didn't really show, blended into the quilt top and didn't give a defined edge to it. The obvious answer was to bind it in white. Which is what I did, with just a little tweak here and there.

Where the pluses touch the edge of the quilt I matched the binding to the plus fabric. It was easier than I thought it would be, though it did feel strange joining binding strips without the right angle. The only thing I would change if I was to do it again was to trim the quilt by a quarter of an inch all round before binding so that the added colour in the binding didn't distort the shape of the pluses that it matches up to.

This quilt isn't perfect, but it makes me so happy. I learned a lot in the making of it. Especially about straight line quilting close together. I have ripped out much of the original quilting and restitched it but made myself stop. This quilt is what it is, and I like its wrinkles, crinkles and bumps. A bit like how I view myself.

I especially like my shots of colour in amongst the blues.

The original basis for this quilt were the ten inch squares sent as an extra to me from Toni in the Love of Solids Swap last year. She seems to have stopped blogging but her work can be found on Flickr here. I hoarded the fabric she sent until I was certain of what I wanted to do. I then added more blues of my own, and the orange solid - and this is the quilt I made. I pieced together several bits of wadding to use in this, and raided the linen cupboard for the back. I just used a white sheet that was of no use because we no longer have a bed in the same size.

I have documented my learning curve in straight line quilting in earlier posts. I used my go to for everything favourite Aurifil 50w 2021 to piece and for the top quilting, and on the back I used Aurifil 50w orange 2150.  95% of this quilt was made with stash, scraps and stuff I already owned. I like that.

The final measurements for Singing the Blues is 42" x 50". Not big, I know, but maybe a good size to hang on my dining/sewing room wall.

Susan