This quilt top stayed in the top stage for years. It was finally quilted a few years ago. Then it sat in the "needs binding" stage for a few more years. A while back I had an urge to trim some quilts and I trimmed down six quilts that needed that service. Then those six quilts needed binding. A few months or so later I started applying the binding on these quilts. Last night I added part one of the binding on the last quilt that I trimmed. It needs to be sewn down on the back side. Then all six quilts will be ready for their new life, whatever that may be.
It is a wonderful feeling to see that pile of tops become quilted tops, then bound tops, well almost. That sixth quilt still needs the last stage of the binding completed. Once I machine sew the binding on the front side of a quilt, I usually will have the hand sewing done on the back side fairly quickly so I am confident that this last part will be completed soon.
There is one more quilt that I am hand sewing the back side that was a pile of quilt blocks a while back. I sewed the blocks together, then sewed on the borders, had it quilted, machine sewed down the binding on the front side, and now I am almost finished with that binding as well. When I finish that quilt I will start the hand sewing part on quilt number six which is a larger quilt.
I really like sewing the last part of the binding by hand. I have discovered a new method of doing all parts of the binding by machine, with a flange included in the binding. I have cut some binding strips for another quilt with that method in mind. I hope I can learn to sew on binding well with this new method. We shall see.
Happy Quilting
