Today I've been playing with scraps. I practised the hot cross pattern on the mauve pieces, and decided against it, so I used my Autumn colours.and decided against that one too, hopefully I'll like my 3rd attempt. Also I looked up a tutorial for machine stitching bindings on. Is there a reason we hand sew them on? The tutorial looked pretty good to me.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]577298[/ATTACH]I don't know why only half the photo came thru, meg, my dog had to lay next to it...with me ever step of the way.

I tried binding on my machine and could never get it to look good. Unless your binding is perfect the stitching can miss its mark on the back side of the quilt. It also will ripple and when going around the corners the machine can get stuck on the thickness. Some people can do it beautifully, not me.

There are so many reasons for being unsuccessful.
working too fast
wrong thread or needle
cheap fabric for binding
not enough quilting near the quilt edge to stabilize it and prevent it from shifting. This is my biggest discovery over the years.

I am going to try it again by combining Elmers Washable School Glue to hold the binding in place and prevent shifting, then sew it with machine. There is a big difference in working on a little sample piece and shifting around a big quilt under that little needle, it is not as easy as it looks. A big quilt needs lots of support and focus on feeding it through the machine evenly

Your sample runners are interesting m-fay. The purple blocks are very nice. They look like pretty packages waiting to be opened. The string blocks are cool, like a glass window.

I will join too! I participated in the Christmas/Winter swap last year and really enjoyed it :-)

I started sewing on 1 today, changed my mind, then another, and the 3rd one I think will be the one. I have to put it all together but I m sure this will be the final. Tomorrow will be the day to know for sure...

Hi ekuw, welcome back. What a nice bunch of players we have.

There is an update on my HCB runner and I want to share it with you!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]577391[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]577392[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]577393[/ATTACH]

So I accomplished three things on this runner, it represents autumn and I used two of the things celebrated in September, Hot Cross Buns and Butterscotch. This is a keeper and will be in the swap!:D

Wow really pretty.

i'm in, working on a cute applique/embroidery idea. Still in the designing stage, but it's looking good. Will post soon.