a new binding for the mark twain quilt

Thank you to all of you who took the time to respond to my binding dilemma in this post. After reading the responses, I felt more confused than ever. There were good points for each option! I figured that might happen, so I decided not to rush my decision. After a few days of ruminating on the subject, I decided to go with yellow after all. Except....I did NOT use the Kona Canary, I went with Kona Buttercup instead. The buttercup color is less intense than the canary color. Now that it's on the quilt, I don't think I could have gotten a better match. It's the right color and intensity. It was also in my stash, which is the cherry on top!

Applying the binding around those sharp points was NOT easy. I did the best that I could and decided to not stress over it too much. I could tell that the original maker had a bit of a challenge with it as well, which made me feel much better. :) I made bias binding, and I ended up using almost 2/3 of a yard of fabric, which felt like a lot for a quilt this size, but with all the extra turns and points, it makes sense. I'm glad I had enough fabric the first time around!

I also tried a tea dyed experiment with the Kona buttercup, thinking that it would tone down the yellow just a bit. In reality, the tea made the fabric look really dirty, so it obviously wasn't the way to go. It was a good test, though. You don't know unless you try it out. At least that was an easy decision!

I have only just begun to hand stitch the binding down to the back, but I had to get started to see how it's going to look. I'm very excited to see the fresh new binding on the edges. It's SO much better than the previous tattered edges. I know that I'm going to enjoy stitching the remainder of the binding down. Every single stitch!

I did appreciate all the comments in the previous post...I took the advice of one wise commenter and pre-washed the fabric before I applied it to the quilt. I wouldn't have thought to do that, so I'm glad that someone pointed it out to me. Thanks for the valuable input!

Happy Monday to you!

quilt repair, part one

I have not done repairs on an antique quilt before, but I'm about to dip my toes in the water. I guess I'm going to have to make it up as I go along! I've had this quilt for almost a year now, and I'm still SO thankful that I was the one to find it and rescue it. (You can read more about it in this post.)

The binding has disintegrated, so removing that was the first step. I'm pretty sure that the maker used pre-packaged bias binding. (I'm only guessing, but I've seen enough vintage pre-packaged binding in thrift stores. This looks like one of the signature colors.)

The binding was hand-stitched to the back of the quilt, so it was easy to remove. (It was actually kind of fun!)

When it came down to it, there was surprisingly little binding removed.

I decided to keep the front half of the binding on the quilt. I didn't want to remove it, because the line of (machine) stitching is holding all the layers together. The quilt isn't extremely fragile, but I certainly don't want to open up those delicate edges.

I had some bias binding pieces leftover from some other projects, so I used a few scraps to test out an appropriate width of binding. I started with a 2" wide strip, which was too narrow. (There wasn't enough binding to adequately wrap around and cover the line of stitching.) This strip measures 2.375" and it's just right. I will attach the binding with a seam allowance that is slightly larger than 1/4", so the new binding will cover the remains of the original binding.

This fabric was just supposed to be a test, but I actually like how it looks on the quilt, especially with all those orangey-red hexagons. I have plenty of it in my stash, so I'm considering using it to bind the quilt. Besides, if you have to go to all the trouble of making bias binding, showing off a pretty plaid pattern just makes sense, right? :)

Option A: plaid

Option B: Canary Kona cotton

 

The other option would be to use a solid yellow. I do like this option because it is more in keeping with the original quilt. I am using a brighter shade for three reasons: 1. I'm not a fan of the golden yellow, 2. The brighter yellow holds it's own against the orangey-red hexagons. (A lighter yellow looks washed out.) and 3. The yellow is a better match to the yellow fabrics that are a part the actual quilt.

 

Since I can not decide which fabric to use, I'm going to ask you to vote.... which option would you choose for binding and why? I'd love to hear what you think. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

I'm excited to be taking on this challenge of repairing the quilt and giving it many more years of life. That's the hope, anyway!