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:

Lincoln UFO (slow) progress

My goal for today was to lay out my blocks and get my flimsy put together so I could say I at least had THAT done by the end of the month.  Somehow, laying out the blocks took me all day!  I just didn't have a good system going into it and I had to start over at least once.  It was harder than I thought to make sure that I didn't have any repeated fabric right next to each other.  Several hours later and I had the layout complete:

But that's all I had time to do.  I labeled and stacked them and they are ready for sewing.  Of course, that won't happen until after the weekend at the earliest!  Maybe Monday...

Machine Binding Technique

I had a chance to try out a new machine binding technique when I finished my placemat for the March Free Motion Challenge.

But first, I guess I should tell you which technique I have been using.  There are a lot of tutorials out there, including one at Pat Sloan's site, and even videos at You Tube. Basically, you trim the backing and batting (cutting from the front, approximately 1/8 inch from the edge of your top) before you sew the binding onto the BACK of your quilt (with a 1/4 inch seam).  You then flip the binding over onto your front and sew it into place using a decorative stitch making sure you cover the stitch line that is there from sewing the binding onto the back.  I used this technique to bind the peacock quilt at the beginning of the year.

this is the view of the binding from the front of the quilt

I liked this technique for speed, and can see how the decorative stitching adds another element to some quilts.  But, I sometimes miss the nice crisp edge that you get from hand sewing the binding in place.  Enter new technique, which I have searched my browser history for over an hour trying to find out where it was I read it one night.

In this technique, you machine stitch your binding onto the front of the quilt as usual, trim the edges as usual (3/8 inch from the stitch line), and then press the heck out of it.  The tutorial I read, said to then wrap the binding around to the back side, using your fingers to hold it in place, and stitch in-the-ditch from the front, making sure you caught the binding on the backside of your backing.  I thought that sounded pretty hard, so I pinned mine in place about every 4 or 5 inches, and especially around the corners.  The result is a nice clean look from the front, and the stitching on the back is no worse than the first technique (for some reason mine is a little wavy in places).  Although....even pinning, I did manage to miss a few spots and had to go back and re-stitch them.  Here are the pics.

In-the-ditch stitching, but see that nice crisp edge!

This is one of the spots I missed even with pinning

I think all in all, I liked this machine binding technique better than the old.  However, I will need to continue to pin the binding in place, and should probably pin closer together in the future.  I just don't see how you could do this with just your hands unless you trimmed closer to the edge and really stretched the binding into place.