Yesterday I finished the binding on my low-ish volume improv scrap quilt!
I'd been putting this off. Why? Because for the past 18mths or so my almost ten year old Juki TL 2010 sewing machine has been finicky and started skipping stitches with multiple layers of fabric over batting whenever binding even with the walking foot. I've adjusted the things I can and it never improves. Fortunately it is fine for piecing and still sews a flawless stitch when not binding a quilt so I have deemed it my piecing only machine. I do have a newer Juki Haruka but I have it permanently set up for free motion quilting so I don't need to frequently adjust tension and swap presser feet etc. Thus, I needed an alternative sewing machine for binding.
Fortunately when we moved back to Australia in January I reclaimed my 11 year old but barely used $200 Brother sewing machine that I had bought and used for six months in 2012. Then when we moved to the USA, I left it in a closet at my sons' apartment whilst living overseas.
Brother makes excellent relatively inexpensive and easy to use sewing machines, they are especially good for beginners. I love these for many reasons including how lightweight they are which makes them so perfect for taking to quilt retreats and classes. I tested this one on a smaller quilt binding last week to bind my purple Large Scraps quilt and as expected it went through all the layers well but I didn't like the standard presser foot it had on.
So yesterday I found and dug through the attachments bag and it had actually come with a stitch in the ditch foot which is my usual absolute must have when binding a quilt! I was so excited! Why? Because as you can see in the image above, the centre guide makes it easy to align the stitching line with the edge of the binding.
So, I got to work stitching down the binding:
Now my low-ish volume quilt is complete!
This is the first quilt completed using the 6" scrappy improv blocks (which I've made 1600 of in 2022/23).
