What a pain! I just spent two hours looking at my "How To" books and still it took me forever. I did fine until the last step of forming the tube. With a small piece, it sure didn't make a lot of sense to me. But I did it.......now I know why I avoid the bias binding....:o)

I've never tried it so maybe you could give me lessons.

No way....LOL I may do it again for ten years...... :-P

I don't use the tube method. I use bias binding with stripes and plaids mostly and the tube method doesn't offset the design enough to make a nice 45 degree cut of fabric.

I usually lay my fabric (opened up) on the floor and mark it and cut with scissors. That way I can be sure I am getting a pretty 45 degree angle cut.

Once you've done it a bazillion times it gets easier. Nancy Zieman has a very clear and easy method in her book "10-20-30 Minutes to Quilt" and she may have published it elsewhere. I love using stripes on the bias to bind quilts.

But how does that work with smaller pieces of fabric? I was using an 18" square.

Did you need the bias for a curved edge? All of my quilts have been rectangular and I use straight cuts for the binding.

One time when I needed bias, I cut each piece individually and sewed them together to form the long piece.

That's what I did recently for a round tree skirt, and it seemed easy enough. I've tried the tube method, but it didn't work well for me!

I could have made it for a curved corner, but decided to keep it squared. The bias was really an exercise in learning for me. I'm glad I did it and I would do it again. Once I figured it out, I liked the results.

When I first started quilting I did the tube binding and you got so much binding out of a yard. But I haven't done it in so long everytime I look at the instructions I get confused.

What is tube binding?

Yeah.....what are we talking about here? Tube binding? Never heard of it.

Tube binding is when you take a square of fabric, cut it on the diagonal, then sew the top & bottom together, roll up and offset the edges and sew a tube. Then, you cut the width of your binding around and off the outside edge of the tube until the fabric is all used up. Kind of hard to describe, but here's a link to instructions.

http://quilting.about.com/od/binding...g_strips_4.htm

I have a card that shows the steps a little more clearly because you mark direction arrows and edge markers before cutting to make sure everything goes back together correctly. That's when I've made mistakes - sewing the triangles together in the wrong way.
The instructions say to mark and cut with scissors, but I've learned to use my rotary cutter and do a little at a time to cut my binding. This is the only way I've ever made binding!
The card also has a whole bunch of squares already figured out for me and saves math. :)

I have sewed fabric together to get my square, then used it to make the tube and binding. You don't notice the extra seams in the binding.

This is particularly effective with stripes or small one-way patterns.

I've seen that before, didn't know what it was called.

Thanks.

If you can get the technique down it is actually the best way to make a lot of binding with little fabric. Since I don't make large quilts anymore I haven't used it in a while. I need to try it again just to keep in practice and I have two tops that are King size that I made in the early 80's that need to be tied or quilted and this is how I will make the binding.

I saw this a day or two ago and can't remember where but I lol watching it:

1. cut your fabric into two squares (start with two pieces of paper and sew on your machine)

2. put right sides together

3. sew all around the four dides

4. Lay flat on table draw a line from one corner to the other (a diagonal line)

5. nip off those two corners

6. turn the square over to the other side

7. draw a line diagonally across the square to the untouched corners

8. clip of those corners

9. cut along the one of the diagonal lines

10. turn the square over and cut along the other diagonal line


Honestly it makes a tube, you can iron it gently so the seams lay flat and then use some yard stick or ruler to make strips of diagonal whatever width you'd like.

Another easy one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNRqEb4WuTA&feature=fvw

Not continous but nice long strips.

This looks fabulous.......I am going to make some tomorrow.....Thank You so very much!!!!!