I’ve realised that I love striped quilt binding! I can think of at least 3 or 4 quilts that I have finished with stripes around the edge. It just looks so cute! This quilt binding was done a little differently than I usually do it so I thought I’d share.
Generally I start by cutting 2″ strips and joining enough to go all the way around the outside of the quilt. Then I iron the whole strip in half with wrong sides together. Next I machine sew the strip to the front of the quilt with the raw edges of the strip lining up with the raw edge of the quilt.
You can see how I do the corners in this YouTube clip:
You can see how I join the two ends in this YouTube clip:
Then I fold the binding strip over to the back of the quilt and hand slip stitch all the way around. This takes a little while (I usually stitch on the couch in front of the TV!) but the stitches are not visible when I finish.
This time, however, I decided to try finishing the binding with my sewing machine. So I folded the strip over and stitched just inside the edge. This means there is a visible stitch line on the front of the quilt as well. In most places, you can’t see the row of stitching, but the white thread shows up quite clearly on the navy blue blocks.
It was certainly a quicker way to finish a quilt, but I’m not sure I like the stitch line on the front. I have seen others use a zig zag stitch for this last step so perhaps next time I’ll try that instead.
This quilt is made from charm squares from a Moda range called Reunion. I used it in my post about How to Spray Baste a Quilt over at And Sew We Craft recently, and I’ve also written about the straight line quilting.
Read about how to turn corners on your binding.
Read another tip for quilt binding here.
When you machine the binding on boths sides try attaching the binding initially to the back of the quilt and top stitch it down from the front (reverse to normal) this way that extra line of stitching is actuallly on the back of your quilt not on the front.
Leanne
That would have been a smart move, Leanne! You can tell this was my first time doing it this way.
When I bring binding to the front to machine stitch, I use a decorative stitch or the blanket stitch so it is part of the design.
That’s how I do it too.