Sunday 13 December 2015

bindings matter

Have you ever bought a quilt top?

I did, quite a few years ago now. It was a well constructed and colourful quilt top, a variation of Kaffe's 'Fonthill Quilt' pattern. I purchased it at an Auckland Quilt Guild show, but I don't know who the original maker was. I finally had it quilted by Annette and then it languished unfinished in the depths of the wardrobe for some time, not forgotten but not a priority. I always had every intention of finishing it... one day!




Binding is the last stage in finishing off any quilt, but I was a bit blocked here on just what to use. The fabrics in the quilt were all pre-modern - there were quite a few dark smoldering blues, dusky pinks, tone-on-tone batiks, vintage greens & mint-y greens, and an old fashioned lovely cheddar yellow! I didn't want anything that was too different from the era of these fabrics, and, while I loved all the colour, I also felt it needed something to lift the 'heaviness' of it all.




Bindings do matter, and I just needed to be clear on what final fabric statement I wanted to add here. Did I want the binding to stand out? or to be more complimentary? or to just quietly fade away totally into the quilt? 
So I liaised with my 'personal colour consultant' (aka my daughter) and we had a fun afternoon together auditioning a few fabrics from my stash. A scrappy binding was out of the question, I didn't have any of the original fabrics in the quilt...

- this was the closest fabric in my stash to any of those used in the quilt


Stripes have always been a favourite option of mine and so we looked at a few Denyse Schmidt ones that I had here on the shelf... and a couple of 'older' small floral & geometric prints... and then a Denyse Schmidt aqua dot that seemed to almost disappear totally...



... so, not an easy decision at all! 
We finally settled on a multi coloured Denyse Schmidt stripe. 
Have a little look...





I found a few useful tips & tricks for binding on Rita's post here
and check out this post for more great info on quilt bindings



-close up of backing


-close up of the 'twirling vine & leaf' quilting


I felt the stripe worked quite well in the end - it seemed to pick up all the lighter tones in the quilt, it shifted the focus slightly onto the mint-y greens rather than on all those darker blues, and it also helped to link up all that yellow somehow. You can see what I mean in these last few pics...










a bit more # 38
if you recognise this quilt as the one you pieced
- I'd love to hear from you! 

EDIT: I found out who pieced my quilt
- Juliet Taylor

13 comments:

Linda said...

Your color consultant advised well! The photo with the blue flowers is stunning.

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

beautiful!!

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

All of your choices would have looked good on the quilt. It is amazing how big a difference that little bit of binding fabric makes on the quilt. You chose well.

Cynthia Brunz Designs said...

I love using stripes for bindings. I think you made a great choice!

Karyn said...

That was a good find. It looks even better now.

Mystic Quilter said...

Great binding choice and thanks for showing the full quilt - Fonthill quilt has a hello sticky in my KF book - used for marking ones I would like to make.

Laurina said...

You are so right about picking the right binding. I think most of your options would have worked out, but each one would have given the finished quilt a different feel. I think you made the right choice.

Linda said...

Definitely the right choice for the binding. It blends with the fabrics really well and pulls all the different fabrics together to frame the quilt.

Razzle Dazzle Quilter said...

Loving that! What a treasure you found!

Julie said...

Perfect binding - oh to have your stash, where you actually have enough fabric to make choices. I love all the colours in this quilt too.

Megan said...

Great binding choice Linda - I'm sure it's nice to have it finished finally.

Linda @ kokaquilts said...

Thank you Julie! Ah well, some of the fabrics we tried & I liked, I didn’t actually have enough material for the binding. It is a large quilt, approx. 72” x 78” {183cm x 198cm}. I only have little bits of most fabrics in my stash {fat 1/4's or less}, never anything in yardage, so that made the decision even trickier! Linda

Quilteuse Forever said...

What a beauty!