Friday, May 18, 2007

Pairie Point Binding on my Spring Fling Postcard


Creating these Prairie Points may have taken me a bit more time than what a traditional binding would have but it was so worth the extra effort that I made as it it added an additional element that truly distinguishes the crazy quilted postcard! It took me approximately 45 minutes to complete this from start to finish as I utilized my rotary cutter to create the twelve of the 2" squares using two different fabrics that I'd used in the crazy quilted postcard. Having my iron set on a cotton setting while cutting saved me some time without waiting for it to heat and enabled me to press all twenty prairie points at once.

Creating prairie points is a fairly easy, you take a square, place it wrong side up and fold it over diagonally corner to corner so the right side shows and then press once. Then continue folding diagonally once again and create the second pressed edge. Prairie points are commonly overlapped from a 1/2" up to 1" and you loose a bit of the height of the point due to sewing using a 1/4" seam allowance. I tucked my prairie points one inside the previously sewn one as I worked, hand sewing them to my postcard using a back stitch to secure them a bit better. As I sewed, I made sure that I stopped at the 1/2" point so that I could place and insert my next prairie point as I continued working around the outside edges. You can also pin them in place by placing the pin in the center of each triangle as you work and overlap them as you do so. Once the prairie points are securely sewn to the quilt top and your backing is ready, you can bring your binding seam right to the very edge of the sewn seam and stitch in the ditch or bring your backing fabric out onto the prairie points an additional 1/4" --- this second process assists to stabilize the prairie points just a bit more while the overlap between the points assist with hiding the 1/4" extended backing from being shown on the right side. The final results are well-worth all the additional effort!

1 comment:

Susan said...

That is such a great idea! I love the look of the whole postcard.