I can’t believe it’s already the last week of January. Which means it’s time to post about my January goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes. My goal was to completely finish my Riley Blake Challenge quilt.
Done! It’s been mostly done for the last 2 weeks. I was just really dragging my feet on sewing the binding down. I normally do all my binding by machine. When I first started quilting I didn’t care very much for hand sewing and I found this great tutorial on machine binding. The more you use this technique the cleaner it looks and I’ve gotten pretty good at it. For some reason though I wanted to try hand sewing the binding down on this quilt and I guess I was waiting for a “hand sewing mood” to make that happen. Well, that finally happened and I got her finished last Friday. I do like the invisible look of the hand sewing, but I feel as though it isn’t nearly as secure as it would be if I had used the machine binding technique. Maybe that would change if I had more practice and time to improve my hand sewing technique.
Linking up with 
simonsayssew.wordpress.com 
What a beautiful quilt!
What a pretty quilt! I’m a machine binder too – I lack patience for hand binding 🙂
Beautiful. The quilting is amazing. Now, you make me want to get on the stick and finish something. Thanks for the lovely post.
Lovely, modern quilt. And awesome quilting, too. I looked at the binding tutorial, but haven’t found that technique very good for me. I measure and measure, but always end up with a less than satisfactory job. When I machine bind my quilts, I use a wavy stitch which looks great on both sides and isn’t so fussy. I like to machine sew on the front, then fold over and hand sew. Your finish is wonderful, and I like that kitty picture, too.
Pretty quilt. I need to give machine binding a try sometime.
Love love love your quilt. Great finish!
Very beautiful finish !
Beautiful quilt! I LOVE the way you quilted it!! I have never tried hand sewing the binding… I’m afraid I will like the look better and I just can’t imagine doing it to all of my quilts! LOL
lol It’s tempting, but I don’t think I’d have the patience to hand sew a larger quilt. I might start doing it on my baby quilts though. I could sure use the practice.
That is lovely!
Thanks!
That turned out great! Love the way you quilted it and that you can really see the quilting on the back. Congrats on your finish!
Ooops! Clicked “enter” before I typed my website — http://sewthisismyblog.blogspot.com
What a wonderful finish! I love how the diamond is slightly offset from center and that pieced backing is beautiful. Love the aqua binding! Well done!
I love it! Beautiful!
Love the Riley Blake quilt!!! Beautiful!!! And love the pic of the kitty peeking out from the sewing machine!!!
I love the quilt – have seen and liked the riley blake fabrics and not been sure what to do with them – this is a brilliant way of using them. I tried machine binding but was disappointed with my resulty. Trouble is I never want to practice on a real quilt – so I never get any better!
Pretty, Pretty, Pretty!
Absolutely stunning quilt! I’m so glad you posted that tutorial. I actually mentioned in my ALYOF post that I’ve been having a difficult time with machine binding!
Love your quilt! I’m a hand binding fan … it takes a bit longer, but I love the invisible stitching 🙂
your challenge quilt is gorgeous! the colors just pop against the white so nicely, and I love the cheery yellow chevron on the back. I’m with you- I really dislike hand sewing and do all of my binding on machine. I have always thought that my hand sewing was much less sturdy too, so you are not alone!
Thank you so much for linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday!
🙂 Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation
Looks great! I’m with you on machine binding…when it’s time to bind, I just want it done!
Looks great! I’m with you in machine binding….when it’s time to bind, I just want it done
Ooh! I like this a lot. The quilting really complements it nicely and I love the extra prints you added in. Congrats on a great finish!
very nice, nice and bright!! Good for you for your finish!! I do my bindings by machine too!!