Sewing Reveal: Herringbone Quilt

Finished the Herringbone quilt I shared as a work in progress (WIP) on this post.  But I never actually posted the final "ta da" photos.  Please say hello to my most recently finished sewing project!

This quilt used Kona's  "Silent Film" Palette color palette on the front side.  And the Windham Ziggy fabric by French Bull on the back.  Originally I planned to use a coordinating blue/teal fabric to use to bind it, but decided to use the leftover of the backing fabric to make my own bias tape for the blanket (1/2" showing on each side, since it's double folded.  Made it using this 1" bias tape maker).  Yay!

Finished quilt size: 60" x 63"
Lost a bit of width due to my batting panels not being as square as they should have been when I cut them.
Cutting queen size batting into 8 inch strips was cumbersome.  The batting sheds a lot of  fiber in the air, caught myself sneezing quite a bit.  Needed to Swiffer at least once a day on the days I would sew.

Using a disappearing ink marker, I wrote the year and embroidered over it by hand with a simple satin stitch.  It's not perfect, but a quick way to label the quilt.  I saw a quilt where a signature was embroidered, but it looked really nice (not stringy), like they had signed it using a pen with thread as ink.  Really started me thinking about embroidery.

The binding was attached by machine on the back side and hand stitched to the front side.  Honestly, I tried to use the machine to stitch the opposite side and then catch both sides, but I wasn't thrilled with the results.  Ripped that up and decided I'd have to attach it by hand.

The results came out perfectly! This method means that not a single stitch showing on either side of the binding!  I never understood why some quilters preferred to hand stitch but I think I get it now.  See the binding in the "2014" photo? It looks like that on both sides!

Attaching Binding with Invisible Seams

See how perfect the bottom portion of the binding looks in this photo?  You only have to do a ladder stitch and viola, it's invisible! This is the same stitch you would use to close a pillow after you stuffed it.

This blanket is pretty large, I think I watched about 2-3 movies while doing it.  Of course, if I'm watching a movie that means I'm sewing fairly slow so take it for what that's worth.


While I'm not convinced we needed another blanket, this was a supremely fun project. The contrast of the colorful backing and binding against the gray is amazing. Makes me happy.

New fabric arrived while I was out of town last week.  Next up - baby girl herringbone quilt!