It's time to fully finish our quilt!
I'm going over how to hand stitch binding onto your quilt. However, I'm really, *really* bad at machine binding, so Anja was kind enough to write up a how to post for you. Find it
HERE.
PS: This is a photo heavy blog post.
Binding
To bind my quilt I am using the stripe included in the
Big Bang fabric line from
Northcott Fabric.
Everyone has their favorite width to cut their binding strips. I cut mine at 2" while many do anything from 2 1/4" to 3." It's up to you to find the one that works for you.
Trim off the selvages then get ready to sew your binding together. I usually just take the strips to my machine, but it was hard to see how the strips line up. Place fabric right sides together with 1/4" over lap for both ends.
Sew from one corner to the other.
Once sewn you will need to trim the excess. I like to use my scissors, but you can use your rotary cutter and ruler as well.
Trim off the large triangles, then trim off the little doggy ears. This helps to reduce bulk when you are stitching your strips to the quilt.
Press the seam to the side.
Next, fold your binding strip in half and press.
I catch my binding in a basket to keep the fabric off the floor and to keep it in a tidy bundle.
I take one more minute to wind my binding up to keep it from tangling while stitching.
When stitching the binding on I move my needle to the right.
I use a walking foot and wear my quilting gloves to help keep the heavy quilt moving, and binding to be stitched on evenly.
Leave enough fabric loose at the beginning to make finishing the binding easier. I usually leave 5 to 10 inches. Once you round the final corner sew until you have about 5 to 10 inches until you reach the start of the binidng. Place the end of your binding over the beginning and measure 1/4" more than the width of your binding strips. In this case, I cut my strips at 2" to start with, so I'm going to cut at the 2 1/4" mark.
Sew diagonally. This part is a bit tricky and I highly recommend watching the videos shared in the post below.
Since I'm using my walking foot I turn my stitch length down when sewing this diagonal. Normally it's at 2.5.
Find the Binding How To Videos as well as how to figure out how many binding strips to cut in
THIS POST.
Labels
Once your binding is done you have one more step. Adding the label. There are many ways to add a label, and many ways to make them. It's a final, important step, though. How many lost quilts do you see without any information on them. Sad! Lets make sure yours gets back to it's rightful place if something should happen to it.
First I cut a piece of iron on stabilizer, this happens to be HeatnBond Lite. Then I cut the fabric for the label 1/2" longer and wider than the stabilizer. I use a Pigma Micron marker to write with. This one is 01, but I would recommend going a little thicker.
Following the instructions press the stabilizer to the wrong side of your label fabric, leaving the 1/4" of fabric all the way around.
Next I grab a piece of lined paper and make the lines darker with a fine point sharpie. This is because I can't write in a straight line to save my life. All of my sentences slant. Once the stabilizer/fabric has cooled, place your label, wrong side to lined paper, and write your label. The stabilizer not only keeps the fabric on place once on the quilt, it makes it much easier to write on the fabric. Many people embroider or printer their labels instead of write on them. They are all great ways to mark the making and/or giving of the quilt.
Once your label is written, press it to the back side of your quilt. I like mine on the bottom right hand side (when looking at the back of the quilt). Supplies for stitching your label down include thread to match your label fabric, sharp needle, thimble and scissors.
Start by knotting your thread, I use a single thread, I don't double up. Stitch so the knot is hidden under the label and you come out just catching the edge of the label. I start a little bit from the corner so that I can stitch around that last corner and knot my thread in a flat area and not bulk up the corner area.
Stitch the label the same way the binding was stitched, using 1/4" long stitches.
When you come to a corner make sure the extra folded fabric is caught in your stitching.
I like to double stitch my corners. When you come to the end, knot off the thread and bury it.
Label is done and that means....
your quilt is done! Congratulations!
Please ask any question you may have, and I really encourage you to check out the Beginners Unite post listed above for more information and how to videos.
I'm so grateful to you for joining me on the Broken Panes Quilt Along. I hope you enjoyed the process, and maybe even learned something new. I can't wait to see your quilt!
I hope to share all of the Broken Panes tops, finished or otherwise on August 13th. That's two weeks from now. If you would like to have your top/block added to the final post please email me by August 12th at patternsbyjen(at)gmail(dot)com with the picture and "Broken Panes Quilt Along" in the subject area.
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Happy Stitching!
Jen
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