Persia Lou

Creative. Crafty. Fun.

Herringbone Quilts Part Two

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Guys. Making two twin-size quilts is a lot of work. A lot. Especially for newbie like me. But I think it was worth it. Check em:
I just… Ah! I am SO happy with them. And I think their new owners are too.
Yeah. I like that.
And I like the being done part too. Because sometimes when I was wrestling those big guys around my little Singer I was thinking maybe I’d rather be doing something else. Just sometimes though.
If you want to make your own, here are the yardages for one twin-size quilt:
Anyway, to get from cut, pieced, and basted to cuddling, I had to do my quilting and binding, which were the two scariest parts of the whole thing for an inexperienced quilter like myself. I had done machine quilting before, but not on this scale.
When I went into the quilting, I didn’t have a real plan. I knew that I wanted to follow the lines of the pattern but that I also wanted to give the quilt some texture. Here’s what I came up with:
First, I did my stitch in the ditch (really it was more like stitch near the ditch) quilting in the vertical seams. Next, I quilted a quarter inch on either side of each zig-zag. Next, I played up the chevron pattern by stitching at different distances on one side of each zig-zag. My machine (I use the SINGER 9960 Quantum Stylist ) came with something called a quilting bar that helps you to make lines of stitches at a certain distance from a line of stitches previously quilted. All you do is set the bar to the distance you want and then line the bar up with the previous row of stitches:
And here’s what it looked like when all the quilting was finished:
Which brought me to binding. Ah, binding. Is this super scary to anyone else? I wanted to use a contrasting fabric for the binding, but I had never done a real binding on a quilt before. I had always just folded the backing over onto the front. I followed my friend Christa’s very useful machine quilting binding tutorial.
First, I cut my fabric into 2 1/4 inch crosswise strips. I needed 8 strips to go all the way around the border of my quilt, which was about 3/4 yard of fabric.
After the strips were all pieced together and pressed in half lengthwise (Christa’s tutorial explains exactly how to do this), I had a nice LONG piece of binding.
I had no trouble with the first step of attaching the binding strip to the front of the quilt, but when I folded it over to finish the binding, I had a bit of trouble. At least with my first quilt. I learned my lesson, and the second one turned out MUCH better. Here’s my tips.
One quick (maybe obvious) tip, is to make sure you put right sides of fabric together when you are joining your binding. In Christa’s tutorial, she uses a solid fabric, so it can be a little confusing if you are using a print. Here’s how my final pieces of binding pieced together:
Most importantly, make sure you are attaching your binding with exactly a 1/4 inch seam. I don’t know about you all, but I am not normally a super precise sewer. I think most of my trouble with the first quilt was that my seam attaching the binding was actually a bit wider than 1/4 inch, so I had to really stretch the binding to make it wrap around to the back of the quilt. To avoid this problem on the second quilt, I actually busted out my tape measure, adjusted my needle, and made sure my needle was exactly 1/4 inch from the edge of my foot, so I could ensure an accurate seam allowance.
Finishing the binding on the second quilt was so much easier than the first, and it looks better too. You can see the difference:
Not so nice
Much better
Welp… That’s about it! How about a few beauty shots for the road?
Check back soon for the full Vintage Disneyland Room Reveal! (ooh… in all caps!!)
These herringbone pattern quilts are so cute! Learn how to make your own from cutting pieces to finishing binding.
If you like this post, you may also want to check out these:

Alexis Filed Under: Craft

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Comments

  1. Amber Heidi says

    Those are gorgeous!!!! Their little owners are quite adorable too 🙂 Seriously I am so impressed with those quilts. Wanna come teach me? :)<br /><br />Heidi @ handmadefrenzy.blogspot.com

  3. Jenny Eanes says

    Your quilts are simply beautiful!! I love the patterns and mix of colors!! I&#39;ll join your quilting class too!!!<br /><br />Jenny from diywithjenandb.blogspot.com

  8. Sarah Simpson says

    Oh, those are so, so pretty! Saw this on Sundae Scoop and wanted to say hi! This is an awesome tutorial, thanks for sharing!<br />Sarah @ domestically-made.com

  9. Lynne Tilley says

    Oh my, now you&#39;ve inspired me to do this, too. I think I can, I think I can. You did a fantastic job and the quilts are just wonderful! I&#39;m just learning myself, and it&#39;s good to have inspiration from other newbies 🙂 And I&#39;m MUCH older than you. I have to do it not, or never 🙂 🙂

  10. Rachel (Lines Across) says

    These are gorgeous! I love the colors and the herringbone patterns. The vintage themed Disney room sounds beautiful. Your kids remind me a lot of mine 🙂 I&#39;ll definitely be checking back to see more of their room! Thanks for sharing at Monday Funday!

  17. Melanee says

    Alexis, those are amazing! I&#39;m totally a quilting novice but I think this might give me enough courage to try triangles. That quilting bar is cool. Did you do all of that quilting with just a regular foot or were you using a walking foot?

    • Alexis Middleton says

      Thanks, Melanee! I used a foot that came with my machine that I think was called a &quot;quilting foot,&quot; but it is basically like a clear walking foot. I didn&#39;t drop the feed dogs like you would for free motion quilting (which I haven&#39;t worked up the courage to try yet… )

  23. Ingrid Davis says

    Maybe this is dumb question but for the backing did you find fabric wide enough for a twin or did you have to see 2 pieces together? I love the quilts by the way and the theme of the room is genius!

    • Alexis Middleton says

      Not a dumb question at all! I had to piece the fabric together. I think I bought five yards of each fabric, cut it in half so I had two 2.5 yd pieces, and then tried to match up the patterns. I put the seam off-center so I had a large piece of leftover useable fabric, rather than two smaller pieces. I hope that makes sense. You can kind of see how the backing is pieced in one of the photos in the

  24. Stephanie says

    Ingrid, I was just about to ask the very same question about backing! <br /><br />Alexis, you&#39;ve so inspired me!!!! I&#39;ve been searching for a pattern or tutorial for a grey and white chevron quilt for the twin bed in my daughter&#39;s new room! Her crib and bedding are white, pink, and mustard yellow, so for the twin &quot;guest&quot; bed in her room, I wanted to do a grey and white

  26. Claire Sonksen says

    So for those of use trying to recreate this, let me just varrify quantities! 5 yards for the back, 2.5 and 3 yards of solid colors for the front, and .75 for the binding??? Thanks so much!

    • Alexis says

      Hi, Claire! For the top of the quilt, you need the same amount of both fabrics. I would recommend getting 2.75 yards. I had five yards for both quilt tops, and I ended up being one square short. 🙁 Good thing it was just white fabric! And yes, 5 yards for the backing (you will have a long, skinny leftover piece because it will be too wide when you piece) and .75 yards for the binding. (These

  29. Danielle Goates says

    Hey! I too am in love! Was wondering if you could tell me where to get the fabric on the back of the coral herringbone? Im in love with it and can&#39;t settle for anything else!

  31. Meg says

    I love your quilts! I&#39;m decorating my baby&#39;s nursery in a coral/salmon color and I was just wondering if you had a name/brand for the color you used on the solid coral fabric? It would be perfect. If not that&#39;s OK! Thanks 🙂

  32. MOPS says

    Quilt&#39;s turned out great! I am looking to purchase a new sewing machine too, what type do you have? Looks like it quilts great.