Bound with Love

This is a tutorial on "how to bind a quilt." I'm sure there are many ways to do this--but this is how I do it.

This red quilt is one of my favorites. I made the top at a quilting seminar in Monterrey Mexico, put on by the Monterrey Quilter's Guild. I'm embarrassed to say that the top was finished a few years ago and the quilting and binding was finally done this past week. Yes, (confession time) I'm human and somewhat of a procrastinator.

Let's start: I laid the quilt out on top of my bed. It measures 86 X 68--an average twin size.

I trimmed the extra batting and backing from around the quilt. Don't worry--I didn't cut the quilt on the bed but even if I would have it would have been OK. The quilt that's on my bed is ugly and was made in China or India or somewhere. The dentist's kids teeth are always rotten and the quilter's bed always has an old raggedy, foreign-made quilt on it.

The bias strips are ready to go--including a pressed hem (not stitched) on the starting end. If you were to unfold this strip vertically, you would see the pressing goes all along the edge. (We'll have a tutorial on making bias strips in the near future.)

In this picture, I've laid out the strip on the edge of the quilt so you can see how the selvage edges meet up. The folded edge of the strip is closest to the center of the quilt. You will start stitching the binding about 6 inches down from the diagonal pressed edge. Just leave the top 6 inches loose for now.

In this picture it shows that I'm starting to stitch the binding to the quilt. Stitch the binding to the top of the quilt. It will be folded over and tacked down on the back. Sometimes when you're sewing on the binding you get a little slack on the top of the binding strip. Try to keep pulling the front and back evenly as you go, but if you still get some slack, it's OK to catch a little wrinkle in the top layer of the strip as you go. After all, it will be hidden in the inside of the binding when you're done.

This is the part that makes people nervous--the dreaded corner!!! Don't worry--it's not that hard, I promise! Pull out and dust off your sewing gauge. C'mon I know you have one! It's one of those notions that comes standard in every sewing kit and you always wonder what you do with it. Use it to measure 1/4 inch in from the corner. Easy so far!

Now mark it with a pencil. Pencil's OK to use on a quilt. You can use a fancy disappearing ink pen, but a pencil works just fine--no one will see it.

I like to stick a pin into the pencil spot, perpendicular to the stitching so if I run over it, it's not a big deal for my needle. The pin is only marking your stopping place. Put the binding strip back down with the head of the pin sticking out so you can see it. Stitch slow, it's not a race. When your needle gets to the spot where the pin goes in, stop and back stitch 2 or 3 stitches, pull the pin out and then remove the quilt from under the sewing machine. Clip your threads. This is not continuous sewing--this is done a side at a time.

The place where you have stopped sewing is going to be named point A. Place your sewing gauge at point A and measure horizontally to the edge of the binding. Slide the orange place-keeper (I'm sure this has an official name--don't know what it is) to the fold of the binding strip to measure the width from the stitching to the edge.

Now turn your gauge vertically with the edge of the gauge at point A. Your orange slider should still be in place from the last picture. Where your orange slider ends up is officially point B. Make sure it's 1/4 inch in from the selvage edge--right in line with your previous stitching. You all with me so far?

Now mark that spot with your pencil. Just a little dot will do.

Put a pin into point B, pushing it about halfway through so it will stay. You can skip the pencil marking of point B and just put a pin in place then--no problem.

Lift up the strip with the pin in it and put point B directly over point A. Push the pin through point A, joining the two points together. The pin only goes through the strip at point B--at point A it goes through the quilt only. I hope that clarifies and doesn't confuse (look at the picture).

Now, the easiest part yet! With the pin in place, turn the strip so it's ready to be sewn down the next side. Make sure that none of the binding strip is sneaking in underneath. Do NOT worry if your diagonal lines don't look straight and even. The most important thing is lining up point A and B so that the diagonal line will look straight after it's done.

Put your sewing machine needle into the exact same place where your pin was. Now you're ready to sew the next side. See, not hard at all. Notice that the fabric in the corner hangs over the edge a bit--that means you did it right. Don't try to line that up or you won't have enough fabric to fold it over later. You will do all four corners the same with finding point A and B, then joining them and continuing down the next side.

When you have sewn all four sides and all four corners you're going to need to know how to end it. Yes, you're almost ready to end it! You're coming up on the end of your binding strip that you kept loose. You need to tuck the strip you're working with inside the loose strip where you started. Just straighten it out with your fingers and line it up as best as you can--pin it in place if you need to. Trim the inner piece's end a bit so there's only a couple of inches inside. (Don't trim it too short--watch the short side of the diagonal!) Then just sew through all four layers to attach it to the quilt all at once. You're done with the machine part!

I always tack my binding strip to the back by hand. I could probably do it on my machine but I can hide it better if I do it by hand. And it gives me something to keep my hands busy with while I watch TV. This is what the corner looks like before it's turned to the back to be tacked down.

Fold one side of the binding strip to the back of the quilt. Stick a pin in it to hold it in place. Then fold over the adjoining side to the back of the quilt. This will make your mitered diagonal line on the back and the front of the quilt. Check it out--cool, huh?

It's ready to be hand-stitched now. I usually pin only the corners down before I start-- just to hold them in place. And I'm sure you can notice that this corner isn't lined up perfectly. I should've taken the pin out and slid it over a bit before I took the picture. It was fixed before I stitched--promise!

When I hand-stitch binding, I hide all of my knots in the seam allowance (the space between the stitches and the edge). I use doubled thread, for strength, and tie a knot in the end. I start by putting the needle through the back of the seam allowance and pull it through to the yellow (quilt back) right where the stitches are. The knot ends up on the inside, underneath the seam allowance. I put the needle through a little bit of the red--along the fold and then run it through a little bit of the yellow--just inside (quilt side) the stitching and then run it back through a bit of the red--in the fold. Also I usually run a few stitches and then pull them tight, then run a few, then pull them tight. Don't make your thread too long or it will get tangled up easier.

Ready for the reveal? This is the quilt finished. Ready for the bed! (p.s. You do not need to tack down the diagonal starting/stopping point. It's fine left as is.) Sheesh, the top corner doesn't even look perfect--I should have folded that one better--or taken a picture of a different corner.