Quilted Table Runner

 

This post is actually the continuation of Appliqué using Fusible web.

I planned to talk about finishing a simple quilted table runner during the Christmas time.

It didn’t work then because i was sick.

Now I'm posting this so that you will get an idea how i do the basting and binding for my quilt.

The quilt top is ready with the appliquéd stars…

Now we need to sandwich and baste the quilt before we do quilting.

Decide your backing fabric, backing fabric should be atleast 2” bigger on all 4 sides, than the quilt top.

Batting should be 1” bigger on all 4 sides than the quilt top.

I do my quilt sandwich on the floor, because i don’t want to mess up my table top with the masking tape glue..(a design wall and basting spray is always my dream)..yes we need masking tape, to fix the backing fabric to floor/table.

Put the backing fabric wrong side up on the floor/table. Flatten it as much as possible, and stick it to the floor/table using masking tape.

make sure that there is no fold or bunching for the backing fabric…it should be neatly flatten…

Layer your batting piece on to the backing fabric, flatten it and make sure there is no fold or bunching for the batting layer, yes your batting is 1” smaller on 4 sides than the backing…

Now you can layer beautifully pieced/appliquéd quilt top… It is smaller than batting and backing…yeah…that’s right…

Now you finished sandwiching your quilt. We need to baste it before we take the quilt sandwich to the sewing machine..

You need needle, thread, scissor/clipper and a teaspoon for the basting process…yes, you need a teaspoon.

Thread the needle, the length of the thread on the needle should be longer than the size of the quilt top.

Locate the center of the sandwich, we need to start basting from the center.

Now you know why you need a teaspoon for basting.

Teaspoon is going to help you pick up the needle as you go on basting.

I’m a righty, so I'm going to baste towards the left side first.

You need to leave half of the thread without pulling, because we are going to use that thread,

when we do the other side.

Now i finished basting left side …now go to the other side.

Thread the needle with the thread that we left without pulling when we started the basting from the center.

and do the basting stitch on the other side too…

Finish of that side, and do few more rows of horizontal basting stitch according to the size of your quilt.

I have done 3 horizontal rows of basting stitch at 4” interval..you need to do few rows of vertical rows of basting as well…

I finished basting the quilt and now we can remove the masking tape and

take the sandwich to the sewing machine for quilting.

You can decide what kind of quilting you need to do for your piece. I have just echoed the appliqué stars..

Finish of the quilting, and then we will do the binding..

Trim the quilted sandwich to the size of the quilt top.

When it comes to binding, i like to fix the binding on sewing machine and finish it with hand hem..

I like to work with my own binding, and i make a long 2” strip to make my own binding.

You can always attach strips to get longer binding…

You can add atleast 15” to the circum length of your finished quilt to get enough size of the binding..

When you are ready with 2” strip of enough length of binding,

fold it half in length wise, to get a 1” width binding..

make an 1/2” fold at the edge of the binding…and change your sewing machine foot to 1/4” foot..that is important.

When you start to fix binding, start somewhere in the middle of one side,

leaving few inches of binding without stitching…

you will get clear idea in the end and you will realize,

why you need to leave few inches without stitching in the beginning.

sew till you are about to reach the corner…you need to miter the corner neatly…

stop sewing 2” before you reach the corner, see the above picture for the first corner folding..

after that fold back the binding to the left side…like the next picture..

..hope you got it clear..

now the corner will look like this…fold it towards you and continue sewing..

 

and stop sewing when you reach the fold, put few reverse stitch also, no need to cut the thread.

Now flip the fold and continue sewing to the other side ....

put few reverse stitch when you start sewing this side..and continue till you reach the other corner

Do the same for all the corners…

If it is confusing, try it out and see. I'm sure you will get it…

and I'm telling you, you are going to love your mitered corners…

Sew till you are about to finish the binding and reach the starting point…

If you have more binding left, cut it off , leaving almost 2” to tuck into the beginning…

(Now you know why we left few inches without sewing in the beginning..)

..and continue sewing till the starting point, remember to complete it with few reverse stitches..

that’s it…now let’s check the corners…

…fold it towards the back and see if all the corners are like this..

you can do this step after finishing each corners,

so in case you need correction you can do it then and there…

Press the binding like this towards the back, using a medium hot iron..

fold it to the back and hand hem . Blind hem stitch is best for this.

Now let us see how to manage the back side of the mitered corner..

Fold the back corner like this, as and when you reach the corner and hand hem it..

I'm sure you will love your mitered corners for the binding..

that’s it…your quilt is ready…

I hope this picture tutorial is going to help my friends who are new to quilting.

You will be thinking now…quilting is not a rocket science…yeah..that’s true..

If I can do it, anyone of you can do it..

I do all this on my basic brother sewing machine..

just that i have few fancy foots to play with..

Until next time..

Have a nice day..nima

P.S : some of you requested for a close up view…so adding a close up picture, even thought it is slightly blurred.