Gratitude + Something Gold + Video Tutorial for Chunky Stitch Binding

 

So many things to say today.  It’s November and November is a month for giving gratitude.  I have so many reasons to be thankful, family, friends, health and home, health of my loved ones.  I could list these bits all day long, but this is a quilting blog and I try hard not to get off topic and ramble.  You are here for quilting, I know.  But I wanted to say that I am thankful for you just showing up here.  I’m grateful that this business has been supporting me and my family for years and I have only you to thank for that.  I’m still in a bit of awe that you like my quilt patterns and my quilts and give me sweet words of encouragement or when you let me know that you are inspired.  THANK YOU for that!

We opened a fabric shop this year and it was scary.  It’s still scary.  But you’ve been so supportive and kind and I just want to give you a hug and squeeze you and tell you that you have made a difference to me and I appreciate you.

Let’s get on with it, shall we?!

 

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My Newest Quilt Pattern

• Skill Level:  Beginner friendly
• Available in PDF and Paper booklet
• Video tutorials
• Pattern is clickable with lots of helpful links included (including methods for basting, quilting and binding)
• 3 scrappy quilt patterns included.

 

Get the Pattern

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Michael Miller Fabrics sent me all the fabric you are seeing in this post.  They have been so very generous to me this year.  Their theme for our posts this month is about gratitude.  I had a project chosen with some of the purples I had used in Tea Time for this month, but then I used them in that quilt and had nothing left for this post.  Creativity takes us away from our plans sometimes.  No problem, though.  I used some scraps from the bundles they’ve sent me here and there to put this table topper together.  I wanted something for my Thanksgiving table and of course, you know how much I love gold.

 

 

The pattern is traditional and called Bear Claw.  If you’ve never seen it before, check out the Aliyah block that comes out this Friday for the Little Miss Sawtooth quilt along.  It’s put together the same way, but I did change the sizing.

For the main part of the bear claw, I used 6.5″ squares instead of the (4) 2.5″ and for the half square triangles I started with 4″ squares and turned those into 3.5″ half square triangles.  My sashing and border is 2.5″ and so are my corner stones and center square.  The whole thing finishes up at 20.5″.

 

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Everything You Need for Perfect Half Square Triangles

Here’s my magic formula ritual:

• Square Up Ruler – This thing is the coolest HST ruler ever!
• Starch – I make my own.
• Wool pressing mat – This actually isn’t “needed”, but wow it’s made things a bit faster. I wrote a post about it here.
• And an iron of course – I recently purchased this one. The steam on it is incredible.

Tutorials

• How to use the Quilt in a Day Square Up Ruler

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The quilting I had fun with.  It’s such a small project and small projects are perfect for those skills you love to do, but don’t want to commit to a large quilt with.  I tried some new to me free motion quilting patterns and I added my favorite binding, the chunky hand stitch.

Fabrics used for project:

• Cotton Couture in gold
• Dumb Dot in ivory
• Fairy Frost in Twinkle
• Jordan Pond in pink
• Let Kindness Grow
• Soul Blossoms in Gold
• Calico Toss in gold

 

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That chunky stitch binding is just my favorite!  This smaller project was a great time for me to get to play with it too.  I’m often on time frames when I make my quilts and end up not doing all that I want to do.  So let’s get to the tutorial!

 

 

Supplies

• Binder clips (for holding the binding in place)
• No. 8 thread (I like DMC)
• Sashiko needle (this is the needle I use because I don’t have to struggle threading)
• Snips (use my coupon with Havel’s “southerncharm7” if you purchase the snips)
• Thimble (this is the only thimble I’ve ever loved)

 

 

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Product Spotlight

Mystery Bundle

• 10 pieces
• Quarter yards, fat quarters, half yards or whole yard cuts
• Available in many colors
• Extra yummy

Get your bundle here.

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I hope you enjoyed the video and tutorial and found it helpful.  I had so much fun with this project.  Little projects like this one really leave room to play.  I would have never did that quilting in the bear claws on a big quilt.  I would have doubted my abilities, but it worked out so well on this one.

You’ll notice my imperfect stitches on my binding.  I have nothing but good thoughts about that being perfectly acceptable.  I love the look of “hand”.  Feel free to ask questions or leave comments below if you have them.

Other Binding Posts

• Exploring All the Ways of Binding
• Ditch Binding (my usual method)
• Basic Binding Tutorial
• Scrappy Binding

 

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Get the Patterns

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