Bree123

I've never used the decorative stitches except in the New Bernina Owners classes. I'm typically very no-frills, but my 4-year-old niece just designed her first quilt. She painted the whole cloth fabric & then drew me a picture of what she wanted quilted & picked out the threads. It's -- of course -- a pink princess castle. Go figure!

I'm thinking I'd like to do a little row of decorative flowers in the binding. So I need tips on that.

Also, I kinda messed up rushing through things & the back is just a touch shorter than I'd like so here's what I'd like to do unless someone tells me it won't work:
1) Sew the binding onto the front with a 1/4" seam.
2) Press the binding up & then pin in place.
3) Sew the row of flowers until it almost reaches each corner on all 4 sides.
4) Press again & hand stitch the binding to the back of the quilt with a 1/2" seam.

I think I'd probably need 2.5 - 2.75" strips for binding. I never understand the math for binding. I normally would cut at 2". I need to add more to have the wider binding on the back, to allow for some fabric to be taken up in the "decorative quilting" & to accommodate my thick cotton binding (W&P).

I'm so bummed because I meant to cut the backing big enough to self-bind but somehow cut it too short lengthwise so I'm trying to come up with a solution. It's a doll quilt that we made in 1-2 hours total so I don't have a lot invested in it, but she is so proud of her first design so I want to do a somewhat decent job with it.

Thanks in advance for any advice!!!

dunster

I think it might be difficult to sew a decorative stitch through all those layers. I would test on a sample - backing, batting, top, and binding - before committing to do it on the whole quilt.

Bree123

Ah. ok. Thank you! Maybe I'll just try putting the decorative stitching on the binding first & then sew it onto the quilt.

I've seen photos where people stitched a decorative design on to machine bind through all layers, but I'm sure they used a thinner batting. The whole quilt is only 12x18" so it's not a huge deal to bind, but trying to pick out decorative stitches is a nightmare. Worse than having to remove stay stitching, imho.

DOTTYMO

I have never done a decorative stitch in a border but many of the ladies I know have. They sew binding on the back and bring to the front. Some try to line edge at front and back together, others don't seem to. They then sew the edge down using a decorative stitch from machine. I've not heard of any difficulties. I just prefer to hand stitch on the back and have just a seam at the front.
there was no thinner batting usually warm and natural.

ManiacQuilter2

I would do a test run with making a sample and testing out how well your decorative stitches look. I would use a walking foot. One of my friends always uses decorative stitches for her binding but she sews her binding to the back and then top stitches with a decorative stitch on the front.

jjs56

When I do a machine binding I straight stitch it down first and then go over it with the decorative stitch.

Tartan

I also think it will be hard to do a dense decorative stitch on the binding. How about doing your decorative flower row on the quilt top where you want it but about 1/2 inch in from the edge, and then do a facing binding. A facing binding is sewn with however wide strips you want on the edge at the 1/4 inch seam allowance and then the whole facing is turned to the back and hand sewn to the backing fabric. You could make the facing as wide as you needed to cover the backing shortage.

tessagin

No bigger than that quilt is, I myself would do some embroidery on it. Like hearts or something that coordinates with her theme on her quilt. Or hand quilt it. My neighbor labels her quilts in braille using French knots. A photo of the whole cloth would help and the photo of what she wants quilted. Sounds like fun to me and a day to sit back and relax doing it!

Bree123

Thank you all so much for your many wonderful ideas! The decorative stitch I've picked is more open than many of them but obviously denser than a 2mm straight line stitch. I don't have an embroidery machine. I have a Bernina 350. It doesn't have many decorative stitches because I typically have no interest in them but I know my niece would love it if I can pull this off (I haven't told her just in case).

I'm going to do a couple practices & then see if I can't finish this thing up today. The quilt label is going to be hand written in Sharpie. I wasn't even going to do one, but this is the 2nd dolly quilt she's got because she took the first one to school & lost it.

I'm already putting a ton of work into my niece's 65x65" quilt with FMQ feathers, circles, orange peels, cross hatch & hearts. Everything is 1/2-1" apart quilting and I did lots of hand appliqued Sunbonnet Sues/Sams so I'm not about to pour tons of work into this doll quilt that was a distraction & that she'll most likely lose somewhere. It was wonderful to spend time with her & I'm thrilled we'll get another quilt artist in the family but mostly I just want this silly thing done.

I'll post pics when it's finished. Thanks again for all the lovely tips!!!

tessagin

I don't have embroidery machine. I wouldn't think hand embroidery would be too much. But under your circumstances I understand.