Ripping out and re-doing my binding.
 

I was just sure I had the right binding fabric for a baby/child quilt I'm doing. The quilt is a white background with a semi-scrappy nine patch using happy tonal prints and a Seuss print. The overall value is medium, leaning pastel. For my binding I chose one of the fabrics I used in the quilt, a happy teal and fuschia dot. I chose it because it matched and I had lots of it!. I machine sewed it on, and started hand-sewing to the back.

Screech! Ugh. It's too dark. The whole quilt goes from medium light to almost jewel tone, but not in a good way.

I am ripping the binding out and starting over again. I should probably use scraps this time, but I'm frankly too lazy! So I'm going with a lighter blue and pink print.

It's amazing what a binding can do to the character of a quilt. You can darken or lighten the whole "feel" of a quilt with just the edge color! From now on I'm going to make my choice based on the character I want to bring out. It won't be a haphazard choice in any way, because I'd just as soon not have to rip it out again!

I always learn more from failure than success, so this is good, right? ;-).

How do you go about choosing binding? Any formulas you've developed from trial and error?

I hate when that happens!!! Hope you hadn't gotten too far before figuring it out.

generally I use a fabric that is already in the quilt.

Most of the time the binding will be the same as the final border.....actually have not made a quilt without a border....but will cross that bridge when I get there

We have learned the same lesson, so we audition binding just like we would a border. We lay out a fairly long piece of binding fabric, then lay the trimmed quilt on top so only an inch or less shows. Sometimes the result is surprising, and we have to move to "plan B." At least it's a baby quilt, so you're not ripping a mile of stitches.

I do the same thing. I do want to use a fabric that is in the quilt, but it is amazing the different looks you can get with your borders & binding.

Before I add the borders, I make sure I know which fabric will be used for the binding. Sometimes, I have had to add a 1" "stop" border to get the fabric that looks the best into the quilt. I audition the borders and what I think will be the binding, one at a time, taking a picture with my iPhone each time. As I am doing the audition, I view the iPhone pic. If I like the look, I'm through with the audition. If I don't then I have to keep looking. Sometimes this process has even changed the borders. I'm lucky that I have a rather large stash and don't mind buying a new piece of fabric if nothing I have works. My friend says I work way too hard to get everything looking "just right". It bothers me if they don't.

I've learned to never cut bindings or commit until I have the top pieced. Then I audition several, photograph so I can see it from different perspective, and see which one I like better in the morning. Interestingly, I find I often use a fabric similar to but not exactly like anything in the quilt top.

I typically do all of those things and sort of did here. I did not choose the binding until the quilt was quilted. The binding I was using was one of the fabrics in this scrappy quilt. Even though it was one of the darker colors, it is a happy color. Unfortunately, I trusted my judgment without auditioning it first. I was glad to use it because I have a couple yards of it, so I wouldn't deplete one of my other fabrics to zero. I am silly like that ;-). My instinct was to use a different fabric, but I don't have enough of that one, so I thought, oh, well this will work.

So I let fabric stash-ology rule over design ;-). And now, I guess I have binding for the next kid quilt already cut -- so watch me try and create a whole quilt centered around the rejected binding. I'm like that! And I have a lesson LEARNED ;-).

The color and value of the rejected binding are not wrong, really. They just change the "feel" of the quilt in a way that I didn't want. So next time I'll be thinking about the "feel" I want to obtain, rather than the notion that "this will work because it's one of the fabrics in the quilt." It does work. It doesn't clash. It's just doesn't have the right "it" factor ;-).

I thought I'd show some pictures of the quilt.

Here 'tis with the current rejected binding:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]472302[/ATTACH]

Here 'tis with all the choices I'm auditioning. I'm finding that every one of them alone changes the character, so I'll likely use them all plus a strip of the light pink and light yellow...and maybe even leave in place a strip of the binding that I'm rejecting!

Another new rule for myself. Always hand sew the binding starting at the beginning strip, in case you decide to reject all but one strip of the binding! :)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]472303[/ATTACH]

And BTW, if you find yourself saying, oh Teresa, I like the original best! Well that's good news for me. But if the time is after, say, oh 11:am PST, then don't say it, even if you're thinking it because I've already started ripping! ;-).

The other thing, I've learned, btw, is on scrappy quilts made of big blocks, don't shortcut by saying, oh, I can get 2 blocks out of this strip. If I'd used 20 different fabrics, I'd have had a much easier time placing the blocks. Now I've ended up having to put two of practically the same kind together. Oh well. Live and learn.

Once this quilt has vomit, spit, mud, grass stain, and who knows what else on it, it won't matter ;-).

Hmm. I have to say I really like your original and rejected choice better than any of the options you're auditioning. That narrow band of aqua makes for a nice frame, without overwhelming the blocks.

However, it's your quilt, your choice, and I'm sure whatever you choose will be lovely. It's a fun quilt.

I like the original teal too, but also like the darker blue on the top left. Pretty quilt!!