Tara, I'm not the quilt police for sure! usually quilts are quilted first, then trimmed and then bound. The reason being that quilting draws up the quilt, sometimes not in a uniform way. Trimming after quilting gives you a nice edge to bind. That being said, NO ONE will come to your house to see what YOU are doing...so carry on! Minkee can be tricky. Maybe you can try another kind of thread, just for kicks. I have never used Gutterman to quilt with...used star, some kind of coats and clark machine quilting thread. Now I use Aurifil, SO Fine and Permacore pretty exclusively.