As in any craft, every step taken to make a quilt will feel easier with time and practice. Muscle memory takes over and hands move to join pieces of fabric together without much thought.
Conversation can be carried on while chain piecing blocks together.
Smiles and laughter shared with friends or children playing on and around the sewing table while nesting and pinning seams.
Flyaway thoughts and fresh ideas grounded in time as binding ends are joined together.
One of the final steps in the quilt making process is to bind your quilt. Typically this is done with a long strip of single fold binding that is attached by machine to the front of your quilt and machine or hand-sewn over to the backside of your quilt.
When you are attaching your binding to the front side of your quilt, you reach a point where you need to join the ends of your binding strip together. This step caused me many a headache and frustrated seam ripping in the making of my first few quilts. Time and quilts passed and now I can do this step in only a few minutes, with hardly a thought given.
Muscle memory has taken over.
If you've read this far, chances are this isn't the case for you - yet.
Here I'll walk you through the steps I take to join the ends of my binding together in the hopes this can be a resource and a tool for you as you make many many quilts until the point where muscle memory takes over.
If you're a visual kind of learner, skip to the end for a video walkthrough. If you're a read and come back to it kind of learner, read on!
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Attach your binding to the front of your quilt sandwich, starting about 1/3 - 1/2 of the way down one side of your quilt. Continue sewing your binding as above until you reach about 10 inches away from where you started.
Stop here!
This is when you will be joining the ends of your binding together and you need enough room to comfortably handle and join the two binding ends together.
The more space you give yourself here, the easier this next step will be.
Using scissors, cut a small strip of binding off the end of one of your tails. You will use this as a tool to join your binding together.
Lay your binding strips down flat on the quilt, layering them on top of one another.
Unfold the small strip of binding you just cut so that it lays flat to it's full width.
Trim each binding end so it overlaps the other by the width of your binding strip (see pictured).
Once you have made that cut, take the upper binding strip and fold it out flat so the right side of your fabric is facing up.
Take the lower binding strip and unfold it out so that the right side of your fabric is facing down.
A key here is to remember that your right sides need to be facing together.
Line up your binding pieces at a 90 degree angle (see pictured) then sew together along the 45 degree angle (just like how you joined the binding pieces previously on page 32). It can be helpful to clip or pin these pieces in place.
Double check that the pieces were sewn together correctly by folding it back to line up with your quilt top. The binding should lay flat on your quilt, without any twists.
If it is not twisted around, you can cut the excess fabric from your seam.
If it is twisted around, simply rip the seam and try again! This process can be tricky, but it will give you a beautiful and sturdy seam to join your two binding ends together.
Lay your joined-together-binding flat on your quilt top and resume sewing, making sure to overlap your sewing where you start and end.
et voilà! You have joined your binding ends together to make a sturdy and beautiful mitered joint.
For the visual & video learners, it's nice to see you again. Here's a short & sweet video walkthrough of joining the binding ends together.
If this was helpful for you and you're looking for more quilting tutorial resources, you can find the Lovely Little Quilt pattern & quilting 101 guide in the storefront! Every step taken to make a quilt has been bundled up into a pattern for you to learn essential quilting skills all while making your own, very lovely little quilt.
I truly do love hearing your success stories, seeing your quilts, and chatting all things quilting. Please send me a message or a photo of your quilt binding if you give this method a try. I cannot wait to see all your hands create.
From my home to yours, with love.
xx Casey