Friday Finishes - A No Binding Finish. . .

My first fused art quilt is quilted.  The quilting is minimal.  The lower middle of the quilt needed some quilting so I carried the lines from the left border strips out.

There is some hand quilting in the center here, something I haven't done before on my art quilts.  I enjoyed it and will do more.  All of the fused pieces were stitched around in a stitch-in-the-ditch style.  Because I hand quilted first, I had to machine stitch over the hand stitches.  I learned that planning ahead is necessary so as to not cross a hand quilted stitch over two fabrics.  This will avoid a collision of the two quilting styles.  

My art fused quilt is quilted and done, no binding required because of Melody Johnson's "Escape Hatch" technique I used; a cool finish I did PRIOR to machine quilting.  Here's how.

Begin by cutting backing same size as quilt front.  If off size like mine, make sure right sides of both are together before cutting.  Fuse strip of fusible web to top portion of backing as above.  Leave paper on.  Make a small slit in fusible web.

With right sides together, sew 1/4" around edge, making 3 diagonal stitches at the corners. Please note that my fabric edges do not meet.  Keep that in mind and I will explain further on.

Once sewed all the way around, cut initial slit in fusible web larger and pull quilt through to turn inside out.  

Push edges out to as much of a point as possible.  I used my "Purple Thang."

This is the corner from the front.  Once well turned out, press from the quilt back rolling edges back, still leaving fusible paper on.  Turn quilt over and press from the front.  When well pressed, take fusible web paper backing off and fuse raw edges together.

Once fused, the edges are barely noticeable.  Now, back to why my edges don't match.  I guessed that cutting the backing to the exact size of the quilt front would result in excess fabric in the backing when turned out.  My idea was to cut the backing 1/4" smaller than the quilt front which I did.  However, when sewing, I forgot to match the edges.  My bad!  In the end, there was a bit of excess in the backing that worked its way into the fused seam. Therefore, I had no problem with tucks when I quilted.

Quilted, finished, and done.  How great is that?  I will use this technique often in the future for my art quilts.  I recommend visiting Melody's blog Fibermania (one more time).  I appreciate Melody's willingness to share her quilting style and tips.  I have added one more technique to my quilting repertoire.  Thanks Melody!

Happy Friday,