Thank you for starting this thread. I have only made one quilt which didn't require binding ( a rag quilt). At the suggestion of some people on this board my next quilt will be a disappearing 9 patch. I am terrified about doing the binding! I don't have much confidence in my abilities. Good luck to you and be sure and post a pic of the quilt when you are finished with the binding.

I was working on binding this evening and have three sides done. I am not great at doing them on the machine so I just do them by hand. My hand is so sore right now, up around the top of my thumb into my wrist. I need to figure out how to do it by machine, I know. I actually enjoy doing handwork, but not if it has to hurt.

First off, I always heavily starch the fabric before cutting my binding strips. This helps a *lot* to prevent the binding from stretching while I sew. Stretching is the most likely cause of puckers.

Here is how I starch yardage. Mix a 1:1 solution of Sta-Flo liquid laundry starch and water. "Paint" this solution on fabric with a large wall painting brush until fabric is saturated. Toss fabric in dryer. Iron dried fabric with steam. Then proceed to cut strips, sew together, etc.

Here is a link to the Youtube video I found to be most helpful for all-machine binding (parts 1 & 2):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wprg5vzkuGw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MRfADz_pyg

do you have a sewing machine you can slow down i find when i put binding on i slow my machine as far down as it will go then i have no problems

me too! Actually I love to do the hemming part by hand and I cheat! My girl friend sews it on first for me!! However, I can do it all if I have to!!

I can't thank you enough. As a returning quilter I've always found binding to be something to dread, BUT, I followed your links last night and used what I'd learnt on a kindle cover for my husband today and I was thrilled at the result. Now I'll have to try 'real' quilting on bigger projects.
Thanks again, I really feel more confident about this aspect of our amazing craft.
Annie

I had that same problem and it was very frustrating. I started using my walking foot for the bindings and it fixed the problem. I don't mind doing them now.