Binding the Checkerboard Quilt

This quilt is enormous, about 101" square. Even with my sewing table opened up into what my husband calls "aircraft carrier mode," I still have to bunch up the quilt a lot.

To keep it contained and keep the weight on the table, not dragging onto the floor, I pulled much of the center of the quilt up into a big pile and tied a ribbon around it. The edges of the quilt are easily available to pass under the machine to sew the binding on, but I'm not fighting with the bulk and weight of the quilt.

Since this quilt will be entered into a show, I applied the binding to the front and I'm sewing it down by hand on the back. The easiest way to manage this is to lay out the quilt on the guest bed and bring a folding chair in there. The light's pretty good in the morning, too.

So far I have two sides sewn. One side per day is all I can manage, and my hands are really feeling it. After the binding, I'll have to make and add a sleeve, too, two more sessions of hand sewing.

The label is already made and sewn down. After all my fussing over finding a name for this quilt, I just put "Checkerboards and Dresden Plates" on the label. Good enough.

At the rate I'm going, I'll have this done and ready to photograph by Thanksgiving. I hope the weather will cooperate for outdoor photos that day because I'll have helpers, which I'll definitely need to wrangle this monster. Fingers crossed for good weather!