Met Up with Jane!! Question for Judges!!!
At long last, Jane/NC and I met today at the Asheville Quilt Show. What a terrific lady! Hope we get to meet again!Anyone who does judging or helps with it, here's a question for you. A friend was taught to "fill out" her binding so it would be full. But in a note from a Judge, it said "binding should lay flat and straight." (She had measured x amount of inches on the border and used a long ruler to cut the sides straight before binding). OK, kiddies, which is it?? Or is that a Judge's personal choice type thing?? All help appreciated. Lavinia
posted by Lavinia @ 3:24 PM
4 Comments:
I have a friend who swears that her favorite reference book tells her to stuff her binding and she wins blue ribbons at the State Fair here but at no other venues, so my personal opinion is that it is up to the judge of each show.
I don't think the binding needs to be stuffed. It just needs to go all the way to the edge of the quilt, just wrapped around the edge.
Sometimes the binding is wider than the edge of the quilt and there are empty gaps in the binding. That is what a judge does NOT want to see. But I do agree it is that Judges opinion. They are people too and have their own opinion. Donna
Having a binding 'lay flat and straight' could also mean the edges had a slight curve to them, from one corner to the other, and perhaps the quilt "cupped" with the binding. Might have nothing to do with the condition of the binding, itself.
I just helped hang quilts at the county fair, and one quilt 'cupped' horribly because the bound edge was shorter than the body of the quilt. If the quilt is laid out on the floor, the binding is not 'flat.'
Straight could also mean perfectly straight and perpendicular to the next edge. Lots of quilts will grow at the corners, others in the middle. I learned at an AQS workshop to measure the L and W of a quilt in the middle, then make sure the borders are the same measurement.
Hope this helps.
The binding edge of a quilt gets the most wear and tear, so having the binding full of batting to the edge does a better job of stabilizing the edge and helping the binding last longer. The binding should not be overstuffed, just shouldn't have any lack of batting to the edge (you can feel that with your fingers).
The flat and straight are two different issues. Especially if a bias binding is used, if the person sewing it onto the quilt holds onto the strip as it is being sewn onto the edge, the strip is being slightly stretched, and then when it is released, the binding will pucker up. Flat means no excessive buildup of either fabric (when the beginning and ends of binding are overlapped instead of being seamed together) or batting. Hope this helps.
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