Finicky Finishing for a Friday

Having had my fun with my first big give-away this morning, I turned my hand to "Tree Line".  I finished the beading yesterday afternoon; here it is, trimmed and on the design wall.

And a couple of detail shots:

Beading on the top left 

Quilting in the grass and trees

Hmmm.  Somehow, it needed a binding rather than an envelope.  A very narrow binding -- to finish it but not detract.  Hmmm...

I turned to an article from American Quilter magazine, the Winter 2006 edition, which was part of a treasure trove of old quilting magazines I bought at my local thrift shop a few months back.  In it is an article by Marci Baker, entitled "A Slim Finish: Narrow Bindings for Miniatures and Small Projects".  I decided on a 1/8" (!) mitred binding in a 'wood grain' fabric from my stash.  (I bought the balance of a bolt of this stuff a few years ago and have had multiple uses for it. I have no idea what I'll do when I run out of it!)

Ms. Baker's directions and the accompanying photos were clear and well done, so even though I'm not fond of fiddly, finicky work, I got the binding on with a minimum of fuss:

After using the usual 1/4" seam, I had to trim and grade the seam allowances down by at least 50% to enable me to roll the binding (1.25" wide, folded in half before applying) over to the back side to stitch down.  Using a tip from Ann Petersen, my Craftsy tutor for "Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine", I then took my fine, small scissors and trimmed the batting around the corners to further reduce the bulk.

My task this afternoon is to hand-stitch the binding to the back.  As I work, I'm listening to CBC 2 'Shift'...and taking inspiration from Judith Martin, who earlier today wrote THIS...and I'm linking up with Nina-Marie and the gang for Off the Wall Friday.

Blessings for a peaceful start to your weekend, too.  :-)