Hello all, Mary Ellen here.

I dug out an old pattern the other day which I have made many times. It was designed by Karen Montgomery, famous for her runner from striped fabric which uses the 60 degree triangle ruler. The date on this pattern is 1992. On oldie but goodie for sure. It is a “quilt as you go runner” which ends up reversible, with two different triangle/strippy designs on either side. She puts on a regular binding made with a fabric that matches both sides. I want to put a reversible binding on it, made with 2 fabrics so the binding that shows on either side matches the fabrics on that side.

I have done this before, using directions from Anita Murphy. I think Anita came up with the “quilt as you go” method WAY before anyone else did. The trouble is that most of her things are out of print, and if you find them on eBay they are really expensive. I would love a copy of her book about the drunkard’s path pattern. She was (is?) so clever and her directions are great. If anyone has that book, I’ll buy it from you!!

I will be teaching this reversible binding technique next month and wanted to be able to direct folks to a resource or two. I found this pair of videos done by Sharon Pederson (of Rose of Sharon and die cutting fame) for The Quilt Show. Sharon’s method is nearly identical to my favorite Anita method. You might like to add this technique to your bag of tricks. It’s a great way to take your table runners or reversible placemats up a notch. Here’s a link to part 1, and here’s the link for part 2. In Anita’s method, you miter the corners as always, where Sharon does not. Just follow Sharon’s directions for constructing the binding, but make it long enough to go all the way around the quilt. Then do everything about attaching it in the way you always do. Try it, I think you’ll like it.

TTFN.