SusieQOH

I just posted a recent thread on this very thing. I think Prism found it.
Frustrating for sure but the other board members helped me a lot.

Oops- Paper Princess found it,

Suz

My thought on top of others listed here. Owing to the thickness of the quilt sandwich, lessen the pressure on the pressure foot. I usually test on scraps of sandwich to ensure no pushing nor stretching and all stays flat.

Kitsie

Here is where I don't even measure the binding before I sewing it onto the quilt. (Only making sure there is enough to go all around) I make sure my quilt is pretty much squared up, sew a baste line all around it, then just lay the binding on and I DO NOT pin or fasten it the whole way around the quilt. Rather, I simply lay the binding on and pin 6 - 10 inches at a time as I sew. Never had a problem in any way with binding whether hand sew back, bias or machine sewn both side.

I feel that trying to make the binding "fit" to a certain measurement causes problems.

maviskw

I always stretch the straight grain binding a little as it is being applied. It needs to be quite taut. If the binding is on length-wise grain, it can be stretched quite a bit. If it is on cross grain, stretch just a little. On the bias, I wouldn't stretch at all. Just be sure it keep it really flat; no puckers as you sew.

Prism99

I agree that this problem can also be caused by the specific machine -- especially if the presser foot pressure is too heavy.

When sewing the binding to the quilt sandwich the first time, I agree with holding the binding up and taut. This allows the feed dogs to do their work, so you are not sewing more binding to the quilt than is needed. If your presser foot pressure is heavy (tight) and you don't do this, you can be sewing excess binding to the quilt sandwich (especially if the feed dogs are weak).

The second (final) sewing of the binding to the sandwich can be problematic as well. This is because, if the presser foot pressure is too high, the presser foot can be "pushing" the binding fabric and stretching it as you sew. The easiest way to avoid this (assuming you cannot reduce your presser foot pressure), is to glue baste the binding in place before you sew. I place lots of tiny dots of glue along the binding and iron it dry. This means the binding is continuously "pinned" in place before you go to the sewing machine, reducing the ability of the presser foot to stretch and distort the binding. Also, at this point, there are 2 layers of binding fabric being sewn down. Glue helps keep both layers of binding in place so the presser foot cannot easily stretch the top layer as you sew.