More on the Machine Binding from the front technique

A couple of people emailed me this week (really 2 people!) and asked me more about the machine binding technique I talked about on Friday.  I searched again for the site I got the idea from and just can't find it.  I try to bookmark these things so I can find them again, but my bookmark list is rather long.  I'm sure the site is out there if you want to find it, or....I figured I had something that needed binding, and I might as well take a little time to take pictures to show you step by step.  I take NO credit for this technique (and let's face it, I'm sure there are at least 1000 people out there that do it this way).

Step 1: Sew your binding onto the front, 1/4 inch from the edge of your quilt top, as you would do if you were going to hand bind your quilt.

Step 2: Trim the edges of your quilt, about 3/8 inch from the stitching of your binding.  Do this from the front so you can see if your binding gets in the way.

Step 3: Press the heck out of it!  This is so you will be able to wrap the binding around to the other side as tightly as possible in step 4....

Step 4: Wrap binding around to the back side of the quilt.  Get it as snug as possible, covering up the stitching line from where you just stitched the binding in place on the front, and pin it like crazy.  The first time I did this method, I only pinned every 4 inches or so, this time I pinned about every 1.5 inches.  Don't forget to pin the corners in place too!

Step 5: Now quilt in-the-ditch from the front of the quilt, right next to the binding, all the way around the quilt.  If you have pulled the binding tight enough and have it pinned in place, the stitching should catch the binding on the back of the quilt.

 The result is a nice, crisp looking front:

And the back doesn't look too badly either: