Binding Bonanza

Last week I picked up 3 quilts from Sue Bentley,  my longarm quilter http://www.suzquilts.com/longarm-services.html.  Then I machine quilted a smaller quilt on my Janome professional machine. All 4 quilted at once, all 4 needing binding, right now.

I do all of my binding by machine, both front and back. I use a folded binding. I cut my binding strips 2-1/4" on the straight grain of fabric. Most of my quilts never see a bed and they are not entered into quilt competitions. (If I were making quilts to be judged I would apply the binding to the front of the quilt, then hand stitch the folded edge to the back.) Here are the steps I take to bind my quilts:

1. I sew 2-1/4" strips together end-to-end, fold lengthwise and press the fold. Then I line up the raw edges of the binding to the raw edge of the quilt top and sew in place with a 1/4" seam allowance. Note that I am using the even feed foot with rudder to control the 1/4" seam allowance as I sew. The even feed foot is a built in feature of my Janome sewing machine.

2. I turn the folded edge of the binding to the back of the quilt and use those clever little binding clips to hold the binding in place. Then I stitch the binding in place from the right side of the quilt, again using my even feed foot. The stitching is on the top of the binding strip and using the even feed foot with rudder to maintain the 1/4" stitch line. 

3. When turning the corner to start a new side of the quilt, I stitch right up to the edge of the quilt.

Then I fold the binding at a 45° angle. Then I start stitching again, beginning at the top edge of the binding and resume sewing right down the edge.

4. I use the clips to sew maintain the mitered corner in place as I approach the corner, turn the corner, then continue stitching until I have sewn around all four sides of the quilt.