Facing to bind a bed quilt?
 

I am making a bed size quilt that calls for facing instead of binding. The pattern goes to the edge and there is no border. Has anyone done this with a quilt likely to be used on a bed? One attraction to a binding is that if it wears out, it can be replaced, but honestly how often does someone actually replace a worn binding?

Years ago the back of my grandmother’s quilts were bigger all around than the top so you could bring the backing fabric to the front to make the facing. I think her batting extended from her top, the width of what she wanted her facing to be and sewed down to the outer edge of her top, covering a seam alliance in top, of course.
I personally like the bindings they do now. We recently gave a veteran a quilt top I pieced, another member long arm quilted and because I had just broken my shoulder/arm another member did a facing like my grandmother used to make. I was a little disappointed, after putting so much work in it that I didn’t get to bind it my way but the guy was happy and the quilt was finished. Here is a corner of it with the darker navy fabric coming around to the front to make a facing.

Toogie: Thanks for sharing the methods your grandmother and the other member from QOV used to “self” face using extra backing pulled to the front. There is a poster on QuiltingBoards who posted a tutorial for “self” facing by pulling extra fabric from the front to the back: https://www.quiltingboard.com/tutori...s-t310370.html

The method the pattern I am using suggests is to add a 2” strip of fabric to the front, then pulling it to the back and hand stitching it down on the back. The result is that there is no visible binding on the front and this no frame.

IMHO, facing a quilt, whether for a bed or for a wall, gives the quilt a neat, clean, modern look. I like it although I rarely do it as I usually bind my quilts by machine with no hand sewing.

I have one quilt that has had three bindings! The first though was purchased blanket binding, that satin stuff.
And I have one quilt that has had two bindings. They do wear out on well used quilts :)

Funny you should mention the packaged satin blanket binding. We received a beautiful antique quilt as a wedding gift from my great aunt. Her mother in law made the top (probably in the 30s or 40s), mostly hand pieced, only the borders sewn with a machine. Then, the “ladies at the church” hand quilted it in the 1970s and they bound it with a Poly/cotton package double fold binding. My first instinct was to replace the binding immediately with 100% cotton. But good sense set in and I decided I could wait until the binding was at least partially worn. 30+ years later, no wear and so the binding lives on!

Suz, I've made one quilt using the facing method you described. It turned out really well. If the quilt will not be used to sleep under, but only as a spread, I wouldn't worry about it at all. If it's used to sleep under, I suppose it wouldn't be quilt as durable as one with a two-layer binding.

Thanks. It is going to my niece who recently graduated from college. I expect it to get hard use because I expect her to be moving a lot from place to place until she finds what she wants to do with her life. I am fine with her “using it up”, but I don’t want to set her up by making it more likely it will wear out.