I frequently put the binding on before I am totally finished the quilting - because I like to hand sew in the evening (watching TV, or sitting by the fire) and now that I am machine quilting everything I don't have nearly as much hand work to do. However, I won't do this if I have any quilting left that will come within 1/2 inch of the sewing line holding the binding on, because there is too much chance of puckering (as Holice pointed out). I feel that if there is quilting to be done within a block (or any space) that has already been outlined with quilting the additional quilting needs to "float" without touching the existing quilting lines. This seems to become more important with increasing quilt size: if I do this experiment with small practice samples I never have problems, but when you add in the weight and drag of a larger quilt it seems to increase the chance of puckering.
Alison
Last edited by alisonquilts; 03-18-2013 at 03:31 PM.