Hand Pieced Quilt-A-Long ~ Binding

Well we've finally made it to the last part of the hand pieced quilt along. Thanks for sticking with me all these months. It was a very slow quilt along and I've enjoyed it so much. I loved seeing everyone's blocks in the flickr group and I am really looking forward to seeing more finished hand pieced quilts.

Today I'll show you how I make and attach the binding to a quilt by hand.

I was able to use 4 strips 2.5 inches by the width of fabric (WOF) to bind my quilt. Double check to make sure this will be enough for your quilt.

I mark a 1/4 inch line on each end of my strips.

Then I mark a 1/4 inch line on the RIGHT (meaning printed) side of the all of the strips of fabric along one long edge.

Sew your ends together to make 1 long strip. If using 4 strips you will have 3 seams. Press your seams open and fold your long strip in half length wise. Now some (most?) people press their binding strip in half at this point. I no longer press my binding as I find I don't like sewing into the crease. I simply fold and start attaching the binding to the quilt.

I take my binding and find the halfway point on the bottom front of my quilt in this case underneath the green Ohio Star block. Pin the binding to the front with all raw edges of the quilt and binding lined up together. Give your self about 6 inches and use another pin to mark where you are going to actually begin sewing on the binding. Start sewing at the second pin.

I use a running stitch to attach the binding to the front of the quilt. You will be going through multiple layers here so you may not be able to get as many stitches on your needle at one time. Use a pin to mark 1/4 inch away from the corner's edge. Sew a few stitches perpendicular to your running stitch line along your pin to the bottom edge. I use a back stitch for this part. This is for your mitered corners.

Now fold your binding up, perpendicular to the binding that is already attached. Hold that in place.

Fold the binding back down on top of the fold you just made. Making sure your your folded edge matches up with the raw edge and everything is nice and tidy.

I take several back stitches here as I start from the corner. Again there are several layers ans you want a nice strong stitch.

Your corner should look something like this when you fold your binding to the back of the quilt.

Continue to sew the binding onto the quilt top mitering all of your corners as you go. Stopping about 6 inches from the bottom center (green Ohio Star block on my quilt). Trim your extra binding so that it lays 1/2 inch over or on top of the beginning of your binding strip.

Sew the ends together. There won't be a 1/4 inch mark on the piece you trimmed use the marking on the beginning of the binding strip.

Press the seam open. Fold again and continue to sew on the binding.

Now your ready to sew the binding down to the back of the quilt. There are a blue million tutorials on this subject. So instead of adding another one of the same I'll give you a link to the method I use. I used to use a whip stitch to do this but a couple of years ago I found a tutorial by Amy @ Amy's Creative Side and I absolutely love it! Your stitches are invisible and it looks so clean and sharp.

Amy's tutorial to attach the binding to the back of your quilt using a ladder stitch is great. Check it out.

That's it!!! After you attach the binding to the back you are done!!! Wash gently, dry, crinkle and enjoy!!!

I finished mine yesterday. I am in love. I'll be posting pictures this week.

Thanks again to all of you who joined me. I was new to hand piecing and hand quilting when I started this. I'm glad I didn't let my fear of not knowing what I was doing stop me. I've learned a lot about sewing through this quilt along and I felt such a sense of accomplishment finishing my quilt even though it was a smaller one. I admire the ladies who make big quilts completely by hand. I hope to do that myself one day.

Below are the links to all of the quilt along posts!!! I hope that the info is helpful to someone out there :)



Block #1 ~ Churn Dash

Block #2 ~ Jacob's Ladder

Block #3 ~ Ohio Star

Block #4 ~ Bear Paw

Block #5 ~ Granny Square

Block #6 ~ Shoo-Fly

Block #7 ~ Card Trick

Block #8 ~ Friendship Star 

Block #9 ~ Square in a Square

Block #10 ~ Log Cabin

Block #11 ~ Flying Geese Pinwheel

Block #12 ~ Honey Bee

Sashing and Borders

Quilting

The flickr group is here. Come on over and see all the other pretty hand pieced blocks and quilts.

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