Posts Tagged "Binding"

When you’re trying to use a huge amount of stash, you’re making a huge number of quilt tops, which have to be quilted and then they have to be bound.  But, you’re a quilter.  You already know that!

So, when you go out of town for an extended period, you take lots of quilts, 8 to be exact, along with all 8 bindings and you have a binding party . . even if you’re the only one in attendance!

Looking at all those brown and dark blue and black bindings, with the exception of the pink one, you’d never know I make bright quilts, huh?  These colors look kinda boring.

But what you didn’t know is that when you get there, your mom wants you to add the binding to a few of her quilts . . one of them requiring bias binding for curved edges.  Maybe this binding party will require a bottle of wine! 

Today BFF means Binding Frenzy Friday!

Four quilts to bind and I’d like to get the binding sewn on and finished.  The fifth one . . the tan one on the right, already has the binding on but needs to be finished by machine.  If I could get all five of those done today, that would give me six quilts finished this week.  Don’t get excited . . I didn’t start and finish them all this week.  The tan one was quilted and the binding was sewn on at least six months ago.  The one with the green floral backing sticking up is the pink and green one I did to test a pattern for American Quilter and it was pieced at least six months ago, quilted a couple of months ago.  The pink/black backing is Loose Change and I just recently pieced and quilted it.  The blue one is the blue Saratoga Lights quilt that I recently pieced and quilted.  I think I quilted it this week but it could have been last week.

And, the brown one is:

Got it quilted yesterday.

And, I finished the borders on this one yesterday.  I just love this border!

I’m getting so much accomplished . . if I do have to say so myself!

There’s no place like home!  My family, the dog, the chickens, my bed!  Today I’ll print more patterns, organize everything for my next trip and then I’ll spend time sewing . . a whole lot of time if I’m lucky.

The main goal for today is to get the binding sewn down on this quilt:

I’ve shown the back side of it before but here it is again:

This is going to my sister to an auction in south Louisiana.  The Mardi Gras colors will hopefully make it a hot item at the auction.

Gail finished a curved binding by machine using the technique I described.  Her’s looks perfect.  The whole quilt looks great but I’m so happy the binding tips helped her.  Check it out on Gail’s blog.

Edit: Diana Wilson commented that she had a few misses too and she thought her misses may have been due to:

1.  The binding not having been folded perfectly so that in some places it was narrower or wider than in other places;

2.  When she originally sewed the binding onto the quilt, her seam allowance may not have been perfect (or close to perfect) all the way around.

It stands to reason that if your seam allowances are wider in some places or your binding is narrower in some places, you’re going to have a problem with catching binding when stitching in the ditch.

For those who have tried the binding and are missing sections while stitching . . the misses are caused by one of several things:

1.  Maybe you’re not pinning closely enough and the binding fabric is moving out of the way before you stitch it.  I have my pins no farther apart that 3/4″ probably (I haven’t measured).

2.  You’re not folding enough of the binding fabric past the original stitching line.  When you’re done stitching, are there places where there’s more fabric and less fabric .. so that the stitching on the back side of the binding isn’t equal from the edge all the way?  You may have to experiment with the size of your binding strips and your seam allowance to get it right.  Cutting the 2-1/2″ strips, sewing 3/8″ seam allowance and not trimming works perfectly for me . . look at it like this to see what will work for you.

• My strips are cut 2-1/2″
• Folded in half makes my binding strip 1-1/4″.
• taking up a 3/8″ seam allowance means the remaining width of my binding is 7/8″.
• I’m wanting to cover that 3/8″ seam allowance so by the time I leave 3/8″ on the back side, fold over 3/8″ to the front, that’s 6/8″ (or 3/4″) which leaves an extra 1/8″ for folding past that seam line to grab with my stitching.

If you want to use a different width binding strip and/or seam allowance . . do the math and get the perfect width for your own use.

If you’re consistently stitching right in the ditch, I don’t think it’s a speed issue.  If I go too fast, I wobble out of the ditch and either catch the binding or sew out into the quilt more than I want so going very slowly helps me stay in the ditch but that isn’t going to make a lot of difference in whether I catch the back of the binding or not . . unless I’m wobbling out of the ditch.

Keep trying . . you can do it!

Eventually there had to be a top where the thread would show.  The blacks and dark browns I’ve been working with, the thread just didn’t photograph well.  Here’s one I did where you can see the stitching better.

In this first photo, you can see how closely I pin.

The pins I love are the Clover Fine (.4 mm) pins.

This picture shows the front where you can see the stitching.  Please click on it to enlarge it enough to see better.

This is the back side.

A reader had mentioned that with the Bernina walking foot, if you move the needle all the way to the right, you’re stitching in the ditch in the exact same spot as where the inside edge of the right portion of the foot lines up.

But, for stitching down the binding, if I leave my needle in the center position, and have the presser foot over to the right a bit, where that right arm of the presser foot rides along the binding kinda mashes it down, and causes the section of the binding near the stitching line to puff up a little, making it real easy for me to stitch right in that ditch.

That’s the beauty of quilting .. what works perfectly for one might not work so great for another but what doesn’t work for me, might work perfectly for you!  Don’t be afraid to try something that maybe isn’t according to the manual.  As my success with machine stitching the binding shows, don’t be afraid to re-try something that you tried before and felt it didn’t work.  I never thought I’d try maching finishing my binding and now I may never do it by hand again.  In fact, this quilt shown in these pictures had half the binding already sewn down by hand and I picked it out and did it all by machine.  That’s how much I like the look of the machine finished binding!

For those who have tried doing the binding the way I’ve shown, please let me know how yours turns out.