Last week I decided to create a piece that I would bind with the method of cutting off half of the hexes that compose the outer border of the piece. It was my intention to throw that piece into the washing machine with every load for the next two or three months to totally torture it.
To that end I spent significant time creating this…
… but when I saw it in all its glory, I knew that I had overdone it again. It now needs a name, and will be called “Table Runner Number Three” to indicate that it has become something. I will surely finish the piece, but I can not bring myself to torture it.
Intent on creating something insignificant enough to torture, I grabbed two ugly rows of the units I had assembled a couple weeks ago when I started work on Table Runner Number Two…
These would be the top and bottom rows pictured above, which I proceeded to join. I then added some hunter green hexagons along two of the sides.
… and then I basted it.
… and quilted it.
This is a small ugly piece, without significant emotional investment, that I can bare to torture, and I will. I’ll be washing it with a vengeance with agitation during the washing and heat during the drying that I would never ask a quilt to endure, all to see if those little tiny seams along the edge can take a beating. After giving the piece more torture than a quilt would experience in a lifetime I will make my final decision about the binding of the Diamond Quilt.
I’ll be binding my ugly little piece this week. After the torture is over, it will find a place on my husband’s desk where it will become a mug rug. Obviously the border of my Diamond Quilt will be on hold for a few months, making it a UFO for the time being. However, I can’t see myself living under a queen sized quilt top during the summer regardless of how high I crank up the air conditioner. So maybe this is all for the best.
anxious to hear how this experiment turns out.. thanks for testing it for all of us.
“My little ugly piece.” Ha ha. Love it.
I’m interested in how this is going to turn out as well!
I laughed out loud reading this and nearly spilled my coffee. Good luck.
I can’t wait to see how this goes! I did do the cut-off method once and I had to hand-tack some of the seams. Now I full in with half-units. But I didn’t have that row of machine stitching in there, hopefully that will help.
There are actually three extra rows of stitching in addition to the binding application on the front. I use the contrasting color to guide the trimming later, then echo it with the green slightly to the left. After the piece is basted all three layers are joined with a row of stitching alongside the green row. Hopefully that will be enough. What size hexagons are you using?
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