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Friday, May 29, 2020

Binding a Quilt - Tips and Tricks

Last week, I had the opportunity to give a binding tutorial over Zoom, and thought I would go over 3 of my favorite binding tutorials. 


The first one, joining binding in 3 easy steps



was an absolute game changer for me! Years ago, I struggled with the angles, the right sides of the fabric, where to cut, etc, and spending waaaay too much time joining binding. 

But then, an ah-ha moment, and my binding woes were over! A simple fold of 2.5" was all I needed - pop over to the joining binding tutorial to see the whole process.

The next big game changer was reducing bulky corners. 



All that requires is sewing the binding at a right angle in the corner instead of the traditional angle. 


Just this one simple change allows for a triangle of fabric to be trimmed out of the corner, leaving four less layers of fabric. For more details on this technique, check out the reducing bulky corners tutorial.


And the last binding technique that saves a ton of time - a machine stitched binding



Now, I know that there are those out there who are purists and want to stitch the binding by hand. And, yes, I used to do that, so I get it. But it took forever, eating up time that I could better spend elsewhere. Then glue came into my life. 

At first I resisted, trying to stay with the purist group, worrying about fabric degradation. But I wash my quilts, and I don't intend for my quilts to stay around for 100 years, so why not use glue? For me, it's old fashioned washable school glue.

I'm very happy to say I've been using glue and a machine stitched binding for several years now, with the whole process taking me a lot less time than hand stitching would. Check out the machine binding tutorial for a ton of up-close pictures on perfecting this technique.

Both my Zoom buddies, and guild members have thanked me for these binding tutorials - they've been game changers for them too. Give them a try, and see what you think!

Happy Quilting!





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3 comments:

  1. Lots of great binding information here!

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  2. Thanks for the recap. This is how I join the binding and also machine bind but the reducing bulk in corners tip is new to me. I will try it out next time.

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  3. Thanks for the tips. I haven't tried the 2nd one and do enjoy hand stitching the binding down, but some charity quilt recipients require machine binding especially if quilts are intended for children. I should really give it a try (if I could actually get some quilts finished).
    Pat

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