Binding

No tutorial from me here, however, if you are a quilter and want to watch a You Tube Video for Binding, take a look at this one for the procedure I use.

Joey's Baseball quilt is almost finished and may make it here for "Finish Something Friday". I've been able to practice the binding techniques for some time. Its the mitered corners that require a certain skill. I started with pot holders and advanced to candle mats and small wallhangings. I feel very confident with them now and enjoy hand stitching the binding onto a quilt. Binding gets the most wear as the quilt gets moved across furniture and floors. It is the place on a quilt that gets held the most over time.  It is the frame of the quilt, the edge, like a fence or wall that holds and protects the contents.

I have often taught people how to set up their personal barriers in various classes. Some of us don't keep our boundaries in place and pay a price when we let others come into our space, take our time, and start manipulating our lives.

When I make any quilt, small to these larger ones, I set into them various energies. With this baseball quilt, the primary energy is one of good health and joy. 

With all the quilt finishes for the binding, the energy that goes into each one is that of safety. Quilts lay over the person who uses it, and unless that person understands that there is an energy to everything in the world, they may not even realize what they feel.

This photo is one an old feller I know who shared this pic of his mother's quilting group circa 1902. They met every week to quilt or hand sew. I think of all the women making quilts down through time who set energy on purpose or without being aware that they did it. The quilt might have been passed from person to person and each one of them feeling 'something special' also not having the answer of what it was, or why they felt that something special. Of course its easy to say that we feel connected to our Mothers, Aunties or Grandmothers who made family quilts. What about those things we buy that we love...or hate? Is it possible that the energy of the maker was in it? Is it possible that those things we buy for pennies that are made outside the country in sweat shops are more disposable because of the energy IN the sweat shop? I wonder.

Bindings I add always contain every stitch a prayer for safety and security for whomever uses the quilt. It seems to me that a quilt that comes off the back of a couch to cover a person at night as they watch TV gives them the barrier against the storms of life outside their windows. 

I like to think everything I do is mindful as well as heartful. At least with my quilts, I am more aware of how that works.