Monday, December 28, 2009

Bound for glory

Do you enjoy doing the binding on your quilts?? That is one job that I really do not enjoy. It seems to take so long to cut the binding, press, sew it onto the quilt, and then sew it down.

When we were doing a lot of charity quilts, I found that bringing the backing fabric over to the front side of the quilt worked really great and cut down on the time invested in making the quilt. Now I don't want to re-invent the wheel, but I thought I would just show you how I do it.

Continue reading...............

If I have enough backing fabric to bring it around to the front side, after quilting the quilt I measure and trim to two inches of the backing.

I trim off the excess batting.

Fold down once onto itself -


then fold it again (still onto the itself) -
Then I fold it over the border and pin.

When I come to the corner I trim off the first part of the fold to reduce bulk

then finish folding the first row before starting the next section

again, fold onto itself once,

the second fold -

Fold over onto the border and pin

I use my walking foot to sew the binding down -

and I have also used a decorative stitch.

I don't know if you can see the nice stitches on the back side -

I'm working on getting this quilt finished for my daughter's birthday. So I'll run for now. Just wanted to share how I do this quick and easy binding ;-)

24 comments:

Terry said...

This is how I've always bound my quilts until I started reading blogs. Now I always feel like I'm doing it wrong or cheating when I do it this way. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who likes this method of binding! :0)

Wendy said...

Thanks for sharing that info! I love having a few methods to use when I'm binding stuff.
I'm going to make some placemats for my daughter to use with her dolls, and this seems like a great way to do that. Thanks!

Molly said...

I really appreciate this; this is really pretty. I had, in the past, considered doing it this way but was never really sure about corners, etc., so thank you so much for your easy-to-follow instructions. I am going to try it out soon!

annieb said...

I have been thinking of this for a long time as I don't enjoy hand stitching and have arthritis in my wrists. I don't put my quilts in contests so the quilting police won't know....I am going to try it on the next quilt I have to bind.

karen said...

Thanks! Happy New Year!!!!!

Sherrill said...

That looks SO SIMPLE and I want to show my quilt group at church. Might be a really good alternative to the traditional way we've been doing binding on our donation quilts. Thanks for sharing!

Unknown said...

Love the fabrics, but since you KNOW I CAN'T SEW I enjoy viewing what you are doing ... beautiful.

Happy New Year! May your year be full of joy & blessings ~ Hugs, TTFN~ Marydon

Mary on Lake Pulaski said...

Thanks for sharing your wonderful method.

FabricFascination said...

I like this method, it would work well for placemats I think. Will have to try it. Thanks!

Kim D. said...

I use this method on the premie and some baby quilts. It goes a little quicker.. I must confess I have two quilts languishing, that need binding, was hoping to get them finished by the end of the year so I can cross them off my list, but we'll see. :)

A Colorful World said...

You sold me! I am trying to get lots of baby quilts made and the binding takes time (plus I HATE the corners!) so I think I'm going to take your advice!!!! Thanks so much!

Barb said...

What a wonderful tutorial....explains it very well...thanks!!

Carrie P. said...

Pretty good idea. I like to do binding. My grandma did all her binding like you showed us. It does look like it is faster.

Diane H said...

Thank you very much. I am going to try this for sure.

Anonymous said...

I have to admit, I do love hand stitching my binding. But this is such a fabulous idea! Thanks for sharing, I will definately give this a try too. x

Miriam said...

I have never seen binding done that way before. It looks very fast.
I love the fabrics you used in that quilt!

Astrid said...

Thanks for sharing! Usually I hand stitch the bindings, but it is always great to have an alternative! :)Love the fabrics you have used!
Thanks for the lovely comment on my blog too! :)

Rae Ann said...

I do not like to take time to do the binding. That is something I will let go and then I am off starting a new quilt. You make it look so easy, I might have to give it a try!

Crispy said...

I love doing bindings. This is a great tutorial Jocelyn.

Crispy

Cindy said...

I like to do binding. I always do mine by machine too.

Tammy said...

Thanks for sharing...binding isn't my favorite part of quilting either.
Happy New Year!

Micki said...

Thanks so much for the tutorial! Funny enough, I love to bind my quilts.
Micki

SEWButterfly said...

Thanks for the tip and tutorial!

Gina said...

THanks for that. I'll have to try it on some of my quilts

Love and hugs Gina xxx