"Birthing" vs "Binding" a Quilt
 

My Mom "birthed" all the lap quilts she made - but - she lined them with something like an old sheet or flannel. And then they were tied.

From my rather limited experience - I have had a dickens of a time getting the layers to lay smoothly when I tried the "birthing" method.

I can get a much smoother effect - with a lot less fussing, actually - putting a binding on the three layers.

What has your experience been?

I never figured out how Eleanor Burns of Quilt In A Day show birthed her quilts and then machine quilted them. needless to say, the show never showed her doing the whole quilt. tying them would work great though!

for me birthing works best on small quilts - like for a baby. I have done a couple of lap size quilts because I wanted to add a ruffle to them. It was a real challenge and they were far from perfect.

On smaller quilts, it may be difficult to have enough room to join the binding... so I birth them. Then they are more 'tacked' than quilted. I don't really tie quilts. I rather enjoy the binding process.

I use to birth my quilts in my early days. I tried very hard to do as Eleanor Burns did on PBS. I failed miserably. Now I make my sandwiches and bind my quilts. I have also been binding some of my smaller charity quilts by using the extra backing of the quilt bringing it over and binding it that way. Something a bit different for me.

A few years ago I volunteered with a church group that birthed their large quilts and then tied them. I never liked that idea.

I bind mine, and lately I have been tying them. I sew the binding on the right side and I do enjoy the hand work on the back.

Bear I don't like to do binding so I always birth mine. It is a bit of an adjustment to quilt them but if you start from one side and then stop and then go to the other end and meet in the middle you can work out any puffiness. If I were doing a larger quilt I would pin and work in sections. then you would be able to work out the puffiness.

I don't have the patience for binding LOL I sew a seam about 1/4"-1/2" in from the edge and it can resemble a faux binding especially if you used a thin border around the outer edge.

Exactly the same as yours!

I've birthed a nearly twin size quilt by pinning the batting, backing a flimsy together then sewing the outside seam. Then I remove the pins and turn the quilt and then pin again. And then quilt. I've been very happy with the results so far.