quilt binding – Wanda's Life Sampler

As promised, I’m posting about how to make facing binding for your quilts. I used the “triangle corners” method. This method reduces the bulk in the corners but is more complicated than using mitered corners.

CUT TWO (2) 6 1/2 INCH SQUARES

CUT SQUARES ONCE ON THE DIAGONAL

PRESS UNDER 1/4 INCH ALONG LONG SIDE OF TRIANGLE

CUT 2-INCH STRIPS

You will need enough strips to fit around the edges of the quilt.

SEW THE STRIPS TOGETHER

You will make diagonal seams as you would to make double-folded binding.

PRESS UNDER 1/4 INCH ALONG LONG SIDE OF STRIP CUT STRIP INTO FOUR (4) STRIPS

You will have one for each side.

PLACE TRIANGLES ON EACH CORNER

You will pin in place.

PLACE A STRIP TO THE LEFT SIDE AND THEN THE RIGHT SIDE OF EACH TRIANGLE

The strips need to be at least 1/4 inch inside the edge of the triangle. You are going to sew the triangle to the two strips. Pin in place.

DRAW A LINE WHERE THE TRIANGLE OVERLAPS THE STRIP

REMOVE EACH STRIP AND CUT 1/4 INCH TO THE RIGHT OF THE DRAWN LINE

STITCH THE TRIANGLE TO EACH STRIP ALONG THE DIAGONAL

REPEAT FOR EACH TRIANGLE

PIN FACING TO QUILT, RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER

STITCH AROUND THE EDGES — 1/4 INCH FROM THE EDGE

TRIM THE EDGES TO REDUCE BULK

TURN RIGHT SIDE OUT AND PRESS

HAND STITCH THE FACING TO THE QUILT

The finished backside looks like this: To hang, you will need to add a sleeve.

Facing is beautiful,

Wanda

Grosgrain ribbon is the best way I have found to stabilize my quilts, particularly a wall quilt. It will hang like a painting. You can use twill tape, but you might find more uses for the ribbon. It is one-eighth inch wide.

SEVEN EASY STEPS:

(1) MEASURE EACH SIDE OF THE QUILT

(2) CUT THE RIBBON TO THOSE EXACT SIZES

You should have (4) pieces of ribbon at this point.

(3) FOLD THE RIBBON IN HALF AND INSERT PIN INTO RIBBON

(4) FOLD THE RIBBON IN QUARTERS AND INSERT PIN INTO RIBBON

You should have (3) pins now on each piece of ribbon.

(5) REPEAT ON THE QUILT AND PIN AT THE HALF MARK AND THE QUARTER MARKS

(6) LINE UP THE PINS ON THE RIBBON WITH THE PINS ON THE QUILT AND ATTACH

I created a “little quilt” to show how to do this:

(7) USING A TOP STITCH FOOT, STITCH AROUND THE QUILT

(you could also use a walking foot)

This method works for double-folded binding and for facing binding. The ribbon won’t show. I used facing binding for the quilt in the featured photo above. I’ll share a tutorial on facing in another post.

Feeling stable,

Wanda

I’m linking up with Late Night Quilter’s Tips and Tutorials Tuesday.

By the way, I learned this method from the book, Intuitive Color & Design, by Jean Wells.