Thursday, January 30, 2014

Binding Tip - Aha! Moment #6

This isn't a tutorial; it's just a simple trick I figured out through trial and error. 

Once you've prepared your binding (I like 2 1/4" double-fold) pick a spot to begin sewing it to the quilt, and pin the binding there.  Leave a 4-6" tail hanging. 


Next, loosely run the binding along the quilt edge, not sewing it, just matching the raw edges and making sure of a couple of things.  First, you want to be sure you've sewn enough length of binding!  Second, you are checking that no mitred joins in the binding end up at, or near, a corner.  This creates too much bulk and the binding will not lie nice and flat. 

If, as you line up the binding with the quilt edge, this happens, simply adjust the beginning pin spot accordingly (move it backwards or forwards to get the mitre away from the corner) and then repeat the process.  You might have to adjust the binding a few times, maybe only once, and maybe, if you're lucky, not at all!

I will explain the reason for leaving a 4-6" tail of binding when I write about how to join the seams so you have a continuously bound quilt that is impossible to tell where you joined the ends of your binding together.  Many tutorials talk about tucking in the final end, but I have a much better method.  ;-)

"Merry Cat-mas" is finished!  Woot woot!  I will post the final pics tomorrow.

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