Empire Quilt Finished

This quilt is ready to go off as a gift to a little boy tomorrow! On Monday I had a pile of fabric in my sewing room. Today there's an heirloom. I love it!

I almost tried a new binding technique, but I chickened out at the last minute. I considered trying Rachel Hauser's zigzag binding stitch. (She had me at fast and easy.) I made a test swatch, but I decided against it for this quilt. I felt like stitching in the ditch was a better fit with the clean lines and sparse quality of this quilt.

I ended up combining aspects of both Sharon Schamber's and Rachel Hauser's binding techniques.

1) I cut my fabric into 2.5" strips: Rachel

2) Assembled the binding with Elmer's glue, sewing, and starch: Sharon

3) I sewed the binding to the front of the quilt with a 5/16" seam: I split the difference between Sharon's 1/4" recommendation and Rachel's 3/8" preference. If I had done a 3/8" seam, the binding would not have covered the stitch line on the back. 

4) I glued and heat set the binding to the back of the quilt: Sharon

5) I stitched in the ditch on the front: Sharon

6) I hand stitched the mitered corners in place on the front and back of the quilt: Sharon

If I had nothing but time and fingers of steel, I would have hand sewn the binding to the back like I did the last two baby quilts. I love how the binding seems to be magically attached when you sew it to the back by hand. 

I prefer the slightly larger binding created by the 5/16" seam on the front. There were a few places where I had trouble getting the binding to catch on the back as I was stitching in the ditch. I went back and sewed over the gaps again to get them to catch. When I bind like this again, I'll give myself some wiggle room and cut my fabric strips 2 5/8" wide. Otherwise, sewing a 1/4" seam with binding made from 2.5"strips would be fine. 

I forgot to measure the bound quilt before I put it in the wash, but I used the same Poly-Fil Cotton Classic Batting for them as I did with the other two baby quilts that I finished recently. It's 100% unbleached organic cotton with a 1/4" loft. We're probably looking at the same 3.6% to 4.8% shrinkage. This one came out of the dryer measuring 49"x36."

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts, Amy Lou Who, Sew Happy Geek, Canoe Ridge Creations, Shwin & Shwin, and JAQS Studio to see all of the other finishes. Happy Crafting this weekend!