Monday, June 23, 2008

Quilt binding question

I am still rather new to quilting and have a binding question. It is not an easy thing for me to do. I have seen it on YouTube videos and have seen online tutorials. There seems to be two ways that people do it.

1. People will fold the binding in half, sew the raw ends of the binding to the front of the quilt, fold the binding over, and then hand stitch the back. That seems to be a lot of work. Can't I do it this way but machine the back to the quilt instead of hand sewing? Does it matter if you see stitches on the binding?

2. People iron the binding in half lengthwise and then sew the binding on by machine. I am having trouble with doing the corners with the smaller quiltie pieces. I am using thinner width binding strips with the smaller squares. I am having problems where the binding will slip and I end up sewing the binding but not to the edge of the quiltie.

So basically, how do you sew your binding on? Any suggestions to help a quilting newbie like me? Thanks in advance, quilters and fabric artists out there!

8 comments:

SandyQuilts said...

I make bias binding in the round as described in

http://pir8.freeservers.com/quilting/CBT/index.htm
instructions.

I sew it to the front of the quilt, fold over and use Sharon Schamber's Elmer's glue method. Then I hand sew it to the back.

Anne Marie - Toronto said...

If you consider yourself a fibre artist, then you can do whatever you want on your quilt. The quilt police are back at the guild, so no one will worry about what you do. I know how to do a traditional binding, but mostly just attach machine wrapped cords to the edges of my art quilts now.

Karen said...

I've done a few full-size quilts (it's been quite some time!)and if I were to sew the binding instead of hand stitch the second stitching I would first machine stitch to the back of the quilt instead of the front. This way you can be more careful with your top stitching and have more control over how it will look on the front than if you were machine stitching from the back. Hope this helps!

Dianne B. Carey said...

I have done traditional quilts & bound as you described in first paragraph. but for art I think zig zag is fine.I could never fold & machine stitch all layers either. something always slipped. for corners, are you trying to miter them? you can also use perpendicular overlap instead. hard to describe but let one direction of binding continue all the way to edge & fold next side underneath as neatly as possible. hope this helps. love your blog & mmartfriends group. thanks for all your inspiration! dbcarey

Anonymous said...

Hi Belinda!
I use method #1. I prefer not to have stitches show by machine stitching from the back.

I just noticed this "cheat sheet" for binding while surfing around for something else. I've never seen it - so I don't know if it is any good. They do have this brand in JoAnns.

It is on sale here.
http://www.connectingthreads.com/tools/perfect-binding-card-_TD81035.html

Barbara

Debbi Crane said...

For art quilts, I like to make a binding from the backing fabric. I cut the backing fabric a few inches larger than the quilt top, then trim it to about an inch after the quilting is done. Then I fold that inch in half and press it flat. I fold this over the front face of the quilt and hand or machine stitch in place. This works for my paper-and-fabric pieces.

ceevee said...

Break the 'rules'. Do you really need a binding? Hmmm? Some posters have said to zig-zag the edges. That's fun with shiny or metallic threads, done around a bazillion times. Or try the knife-edged method by sewing on a wide facing and folding it back so the front edge looks nice and neat and sharp. I personally do not bind anymore. Also, what would happen if you had a raw edge with just the perimeter stitched around to hold it...? Would they toss you in bad quilter's jail? Break them rules. I know you can. You're an arteest!

Lynn Majidimehr said...

If you would like to do a regular binding that is all machine stitched, the way that I prefer is to sew it to the back of the quilt first, then roll it around to the front and machine stitch. When I do this I prefer using a wavy or decorative stitch that overlaps the quilt and binding, and works with the style of the front. Of course, you could also free motion quilt in a scribble pattern, as long as the stitching goes back and forth over the folded edge to hold it together.