Last month, I pieced four blocks during the quilty retreat and thought I’d just whip together a quick Carpenters Wheel for the other side. I really like my reversible quilts and thought to ‘pillow-top’ and finish it up within the week.

What happened instead…

My maths were wrong for the Wheel and it ended up 32-1/2″ instead of 29″ like the Improv Blocks.So, as someone who has never been daunted by un-sewing and sewing, it was time for the Ripper/Rotary show:

Working in pairs, I measured from the center and trimmed so the individual squares would be 3-3/4″ finished. Then, I sewed my Wheel back together. I know 3″ doesn’t seem like a big change, but I much happier knowing I won’t be cutting off any of these points with a binding.

Now that both sides are complete, I planned to simply pillow-top the finish and start a simple hand-quilting spiral. Then, I showed it to a friend of mine and who innocently asked which side I was going to put the hanging sleeve on if it was going to the Fair next year. Hm.

One of the issues with reversible quilts has to do with hanging them in shows. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to figure out an interior sleeve assembly for mitered bindings.

Well, I didn’t self-destruct, even though I also needed to quilt it first, but I did realize this was going to require some planning.

First, I blind-stitched the binding on the bottom and sides leaving 5” open from the top. The lower corners are mitered as below:

Next, I pulled back the top fabric at the top, placed my hemmed sleeve, rolled some thin batting across (feathering it into the lower batting), and smoothed the top back into place.

Edges folded and stitched at bottom of sleeve and the rest clipped into place while I decide quilting.

To be continued…