Hand Binding Quilt
 

Is the idea of hand binding to not have a stitch showing? Any idea on the time it takes to hand bind a twin size quilt ? I know ,NOW, the reason my mom used a thimble. I have to admit hand binding does look nicer. I still have problems getting machine binding to look nice.

I do a lot of hand binding, but I can't give you a time estimate. It varies for me, depending a lot on the fabric. Some needles much quicker than others. To help keep my fingers fresh, I usually do no more than one side of a quilt while watching TV in the evening.

I think that the goal with hand binding (and any binding) is to have it secure and neat. You can see my stitches when you look close, but they are small and only show on the binding fabric. A good thread color match helps.

For every quilter, the answer would be different. Personally, if my hands cooperate, could hand stitch a binding in an evening (3 hours or so). If you go into the Missouri Quilt Company, there is a tutorial on bindings that is wonderful. Been quilting for probably 35 years and learned some valuable info. It changed my hand stitches completely.

For me binding is machine sewn on the front, and hand sewn on the back. My stitches show though, because I just use a plain stitch, I learned on my own and just getting it done is fine for me. I'd like to do the other but too lazy to learn.

I agree with this. My stitches are tiny but they may show close up but try to get a thread that matches. I think in the old days I could do 5' in an hour. It is just like riding a bike. The more you do the better you become. When you come up take a tiny bite from the binding and try to go back into the same place and then come back up a skinny 1/8" and repeat. Good Luck.

I use the ladder stitch to sew my binding on -- no stitches show. It goes very quickly but can't give you a time estimate.

Do you have any issues with hand stitching not holding when the quilt goes through the washing machine? I'm hesitant to hand stitch because I feel like machine stitching is so much stronger. I've considered hand stitching because my machine stitched bindings look weird, on the back I can never get the binding strip to be the same width (I assume from stretching it over and ironing it) so it looks all wavy. And I'm always paranoid I won't fold it over far enough so the stitching won't catch the fabric and then I would have to start all over.

I have not had the hand binding couple loose on the back (I machine stitch to the front first). I do however make a double stitch every inch and a half makes me feel secure too :)

Judy in Phx, AZ

I too use the ladder stitch. It's nearly invisible. And I was taught to use it by an award winning quilter.