Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Tuesday Tips - Binding with Mitered corners and Invisible Join


For this quilt I used 2 1/2" binding strips. Make sure prepared binding is at least an extra12-14 inches longer then perimeter of quilt. Begin by placing strips together, as shown, with right sides together.



Pin to secure and stitch from upper right corner to bottom left corner.





Trim a 1/4" from seam and press seams open.


Fold binding and press. 
Begin stitching binding in the middle of a side. I used a fat 1/4 in" seam allowance. Leave a 4 to 5" tail.

For mitered corners, stitch to a 1/4" from edge then stitch diagonally to corner.


Fold binding across...


then back over and align edge of binding with edge of quilt.


Begin stitching from the edge.


This technique creates beautiful mitered corners.


For an invisible join, stop stitching about 7-8 inches from where you began. You should have beginning and ending tails. We'll call the beginning tail A and the ending tail B.

Trim off about 3" of tail B. This piece will be used for measuring.
Place tail A along edge of quilt then lay tail B on top of tail A.


Open up the 3" piece of binding and line up right edge with the end of tail A - tail A is the one on the bottom.



Make a mark on tail B using the left edge of the 3" measuring fabric...


and cut.



Open up both tail ends. Tail A vertical, right side up, tail B horizontal, right side down, laying across tail A. Make sure tail B is flipped in the correct direction as shown - be sure right sides are together.


Pin to secure, making sure top and bottom fabric is flat.


Stitch from bottom right corner to upper left corner.


Trim a 1/4" from seam, press seam open and press binding in half.  This is a little challenging because at this point all of the binding is attached to the whole quilt...but you can do it! :)


Your binding should be just the right length to finish. Place along edge, pin if desire, and stitch on.

Voila! Invisible join! :)
Finish binding either by machine or hand. 

For determining size of binding, visit this Tuesday Tips page here.

Happy Binding!

~Sew Kind of Wonderful~

9 comments:

Leeanne said...

This is just how I do my binding too!

greeneggs said...

Fantastic tutorial. I gave up on the invisible join ages ago because I could never get that right, but the idea of using an existing piece of the binding to measure is brilliant. Thank you.

Candy said...

This is how I do mine. Actually did a blog post about a while back.
http://www.icandyfiberart.com/binding-quilts-the-easy-way-tutorial/
I fold my second end back and measure from that using the binding scrap. Always check before trimming. It can be twisted. Nice job. C

Jayne said...

I love doing my bindings like this. I have a template that I use, but you certainly don't need it!

Cascade Quilts said...

this is exactly how I do mine - even the cut-off piece as a measuring device, LOL :)

Carol K said...

Loved the post. When I get to the point of joining the ends together, I put the quilt right sides together; and pin it where I stopped stitching. This gives me the slack I need without trying to hang onto the quilt as well as the binging.

Gillian Whaites said...

This is the bests binding tutorial I have read. The directions and the pictures are very detailed and leave no room for wondering.
Great
Thankyou.

curious said...

Zlove your quilt! What is the pattern? Paula K.

sherilyn mortensen said...

Thanks everyone!!
This is the Metro Twist pattern.