What's Under the Needle?

My Stitch Along July Week 2

Posted by on 9 July 2017 | 3 Comments

Tags: stitch along

The first quilt I chose to finish off is Wild Flowers which is a quilt I made a couple of years ago and I actually have the pattern for sale on my website. For some reason - I was probably in a rush at the time - I never added the binding.

This quilt already had borders and I wasn't sure what binding to add (another reason why it wasn't done) so now's my chance to do a facing rather than a binding. I've used this technique before, but rarely, so rarely in fact, that I barely remembered how to do it and actually had to do some backstitching along the way!

I chose a grey-brown fabric for the facing and cut three 2.5" strips. I made them this width because the outside border was 2" so my thought was once the facing is on, I could ditch stitch on the front around the border to attach the facing behind.

I cut two strips the length of the quilt for the top and bottom facings, then two more for the sides so the ends overlapped the top and bottom by 1/2". I lay them on top of the quilt and cut them to fit, rather than measure them with a ruler.

On the short strips, I folded the ends so the raw edge was even with the adjacent facing. I pressed in the fold.

This fold became my stitching line.

I joined all strips to create a frame. (here was my first mistake, I should have pressed those seams open!)

With right sides together, I stitched the frame onto the quilt. I made an angled stitch across the corners and once complete, I trimmed off the corner to make it easier to turn.

It was about here that I realized I should have pressed those seams open so unpicked the stitching across the seam so I could do so.

I then pressed the raw inside edge in place so the fold was close to that small border - hence I realized I should not have fully stitched those frame seams. I needed to unpick them a little so I could make the folds. 

Next, I turned the corners inside out but left the facing opened so I could stitch it to the seam allowance. This helps the facing to stay in place and not roll around to the front - an old dressmaking tip I learned many years ago!

Now with the facing pressed to the back I'm ready to either hand stitch it down or ditch stitch around my small border to hold it in place. I haven't done this yet but certainly will before the next piece is due.

Just on a side note, if you are interested in this pattern, you can find it here: Wild Flowers 

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