Binding epiphany

Is anyone else working down to the wire to have quilts ready for their local fairs?

Here is what I'll be stitching at for the next couple of mornings...

I've always thought my bindings were done quite well....afterall I've been binding quilts for more than 35 years, right?

Well, last year at the Hagersville Guild we had guest speakers who were Fair judges. It was so interesting. I know that judges like to see a binding that is filled up with quilt, but what I didn't know is that they like the binding to be the same width on the front of the quilt as on the back of it.

I made this binding by cutting it 2.25" as opposed to the 2.5" that I might normally do. Darn it if I didn't still have a wider binding on the back than the front. Then clued in that I should trim the quilt just a wee bit less. Not sure if I'm making this clear but I'll try to show what I mean in a couple of pictures.

Here is my quilt untrimmed...

I figure my seam is 1/4", so I usually trim the edge for binding like this....

So, I'm sure everyone else would have clued in long ago, but not me! It's not so much the width of the binding, but how much quilt is there to cover by binding. I'm not sure I'm getting my point made clearly. This morning I trimmed my quilt a bit less (the middle couple of inches in the picture).....

and, lo and behold, it worked! Yay for small victories! lol

On a personal note, I was shocked this morning to hear of trouble during pilgrimages in Saudi Arabia. My brother-in-law is there now to take his very ill father on a last pilgrimage. Luckily, I got in touch with my sister and she heard from Rakan early this morning that their pilgrimage has taken them on to the next site and they should be home safe and sound on Monday. Thank goodness!

Also, I am going to see a Naturopath for the first time ever today. I am very curious on how this kind of thing plays out. I almost felt like cancelling, but I'm too curious on how a visit with a Naturopath will differ from a "regular" doctor. We'll see!

Hope everyone is getting their quilts ready for the Fair also....Have a great day!