Another Rainy Monday

It's Monday.  It's raining.  And it's guild meeting day.

First, I misread the alarm clock, thought I had overslept, and rushed down to the kitchen at 5:30!  No coffee waiting for me. :-(  OK, I'll admit I'm spoiled.  Back in my working days my Main Man would bring the first cup to me in bed.  Sigh ....

So I headed down to the computer to write up instructions for today's guild program.  Just one block ... how hard can that be?

Well, harder than I thought.  Especially since my printer is on the second floor and I'm in the basement.  Rather than run up and down two flights of stairs to turn on the printer and then back up and down only to find out WiFi couldn't broadcast that far, I had the bright idea to e-mail it as an attachment to myself and I could receive it on MM's computer in the basement and print there.  Not to be.  E-mail didn't like something in the document, wouldn't attach.

Did I say it's Monday?  And it's raining.  Why do I always wait till the last minute?????  I ended up copying the text into a message and was able to print that.

So what am I working on otherwise?  Today at guild sit-n-sew I will be turning the binding on Rock Island, Rock On (a/k/a Rock Island Campfires).

Rock Island, Rock On

As I was sewing the binding strips together I was reminded of a tip I got in a class -- I think it was Susan Cleveland (Piping Hot Curves).  So I thought I'd share it with you.

Binding strips RST at right angles

You probably know that the seams on binding strips should be on the diagonal to reduce bulk.  This is accomplished by putting strips right sides together at right angles to each other.  Then stitching diagonally across the intersection.

But do you have trouble remembering which way to sew?

Think about the strips as the legs in a pair of pants.  Got the picture?

ALWAYS stitch along the waistline, NEVER through the crotch!

Now that I have your attention ..... notice that I do not pin.  I have a line drawn on the table insert that marks the center needle position.  I simply guide the notch where the strips overlap along the line.....

Stitching along the "waistline" using drawn line as guide

... then pull the unsewn end of the top strip face up and lay the next strip on top ...

Chain piecing binding strips together

... chaining till I have them all together.

Hope your Monday got off to a better start than mine.  Check out what others are working on at Patchwork Times.