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Bindings on quilts, be they throws, or king size beds, or wall hangings, were originally used to keep the “stuffing”, whatever it was, in place. Which is also the reason for seams to be folded over, to keep the stuffing from poking out between the stitches. These days we have batting and I much prefer to press my seams open as I feel it gives a flatter final appearance.
But back to bindings. There are a wide variety of bindings used these days. There are: Continuous strip binding, No binding (pillowcase method), Prairie Points, Self-binding, and Ruffles. Most people for throw quilts or bed sized quilts use continuous bindings as this extends the life of the quilt by giving it a more protective edge.
Even within a category of quilt bindings, such as continuous strip, there is variety: Cross Grain, Lengthwise strips and Bias cut strips. I have never found much difference between cross grain and lengthwise strips. Bias cut strips are necessary if your quilt edge has curves as the other two methods won’t do the curves well. A good tutorial for cutting and sewing your straight strips together is here. Now they say for a 1/4” binding, use 1.5” strips. Most people find that a bit narrow. I usually use 2.0”, and yes I have a bit more fabric on the back.
The trickiest part of the binding is doing the mitered corners. There is a good videohereon that. Also a good pictorial is here. Also in the beginning, you need to do a 1/2” fold and start sewing about an inch from there. This is so you can tuck the angled end into the binding when the sewing is done. The second link above does not use this method, but rather carefully sews the two end together. Either way works.
I usually start in the middle of the bottom, where if there is some minor problems sliding the end in, or sewing the strip together it won’t show.
Then match the open part of the binding to the edge of the quilt, and using a quarter inch foot, sew the binding on. Stop 1/4” inch from the edge, backstitch. At that point, I cut the threads. Not everyone uses this method. I then pull the binding in 90 degrees and then lay down flat against the quilt edge. When you’ve done that you will have a mitered corner. A picture from the second link on binding that shows how it should look. They do not stop the machine in the turn, but just turn the corner and continue. I find it works better to do the fold and start again, with back stitching.
Once you have sewn the binding on and ended it with whatever method you choose, then you turn the folded edge over and hand sew it, or machine sew it, on the back. Either way, you really can’t use pins. There is just too much fabric. Mini clothespin you can buy most quilt places work best.
For this quilt I did hand sewing on the back. If it is a baby quilt, I’ll machine sew the back.
When you get to the mitered corners, you need to sew them down as well, going up into the miter.
I’m sorry I don’t have more of my pictures in progress, but I hadn’t thought of this topic until I was hand sewing the back. However, the links I’ve added show the process better than I could.
Another part of binding is deciding if you want a contrasting binding, a complimentary binding, or a binding the matches the last border of the quilt. For this one, I wanted contrasting for the front and matching for the back.
So what are your choices in quilt bindings? And what are you quilting now?
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