Originally Posted by CloverPatch
You have to iron folds and it feels like your at that iron forever.
Actually, you DON'T have to iron folds. At a class a friend of mine recently took, the instructor told them NOT to iron the fold because it makes the binding not lay flat. I tried it both ways and she's RIGHT! I'll see if I can explain this in words instead of pictures...
When you iron the fold into the quilt, it wants to stay there. So, after you've stitched the binding on the front and you're now folding it to the back, the inside curve of the binding is shorter than the outside curve, and therefore bunches up and doesn't lay flat.
Instead, simply align the cut edges of your folded binding to the raw edge of your quilt, stitch, then fold your binding to the back, and finish however you desire. Because the fold isn't permanently creased into the fabric, the fold is allowed to move. Granted, it may only be 3 or 4 thread-widths, but it is enough to make a difference. We all know what happens if our quarter-inch is off by 3 or 4 threads! If you're a beginner like the OP, it's probably not a big deal, but I like my bindings to be nice and clean and flat, and I hate ironing. Where did we learn that ironing the binding was the proper thing to do, anyway??? lol