Today I thought that I would talk about how I bind a quilt.
First off I cut my binding 2 1/2 inches wide. I can't tell you how easy cutting binding is with the Martelli strip ruler.
As you can see I have numbered the slots in one inch intervals. I have also made a line every 2 1/2 inches for cutting binding. These marking make it so much faster and easier to cut all my binding by placing both my ruler and fabric on the table once. I can cut five strips WOF (with of the fabric) without moving the ruler.
Now that I have my binding cut, sew the strips together to make one strip. Now it is time to attach the binding to the quilt. I use Martelli's
Zip Bind system. I have tried other ways of binding and with the other methods I never had a good looking corner. With Martelli's Zip Bind System, I have never had a bad looking corner. Now with that said, I don't follow her system to the end. I find that once I get the binding sewn onto the front of the quilt, the back comes without an effort, so I do not follow her instructions on finishing the back.
I am going to take you through how I bind my quilts but highly recommend you looking at her
video first.
Fold binding in half WRONG sides together and sew a 1/4 inch seam lengthwise.
Stitch as close as you can to the outer edge of the quilt. This really helps keep the edges flat and clean while adding the binding.
Using the Stitch-N-Ditch Binding foot set at a scant less than 3/8 inches. Start stitching on the binding by starting in the middle of one side leaving about a 6 inch tail.
Mark a line on your binding a scant less than 3/8 from the bottom edge. Sew to that line and back-stitch to lock stitches in place.
Using you Minute-Miter (medium size for 2 1/2 in blinding strips), placing it on the edge as shown.
Fold the binding up on top of the binding that is already sewn to the
quilt. Pull the Minute-Miter to the right so that the bottom is even
with the folded side of the binding.
Now fold the binding to the left so that the raw edge is even with the
bottom of the quilt. Use the Zip gun to clip the binding in place 1 1/2
to 2 inches to the left of the Minute-Miter.
Next, remove the Minute-Miter by pushing it left, up and then right.
Pop
Pinch
Fold
Starting at the edge of the corner start stitching again. Stitch until
a scant less than 3/8 inch and repeat the process. Repeat for the next
three corners until you are 6 to 8 inches from where you started.
Overlapping the binding by the width of the binding. In this case 2 1/2
inches, and cut so that your overlap is now exactly 2 1/2 inches. Open
up your binding and place right sides together at a ninety degree angle
and sew a diagonal line from top right to bottom left. Trim to a
quarter of an inch.
Refold the binding and stitch in place.
When you stitch the back side of the quilt, the corners should look like
this. The miters should be going in opposite directions. Snouts vs no
snouts.Once you have your corner nice, I whip stitch the back of the
quilt. Again watch the
video for a more detailed description.
