Have a question about binding from a newbie
 

I posted a picture of my finished quilt top. The backing I'm going to use is the same off white through out the quilt. The border has all the colors of the quilt in it then the off white. Lots of off white right? Well can I make the binding out of the 2 1/2" SQUARES( I cut way to many of these and have them to sew together). How do I make the binding and do I sew it on before I quilt it or after? You all have been so helpful and I love all the pictures of your fabulous work. Any info will be helpful. Thank you in advance.

You certainly COULD do what you are suggesting but I think it might be a bit bulky, particularly in the corners depending on where a seam lands and trying to miter those corners of the binding. You would have to sew all those squares into a strip first. If it were me, I would then press all those seams open to help reduce the bulk. AFTER you have quilted your sandwich, attach the binding. I normally folding strip in half - wrong sides together - and then sew with raw edges to the outer edge of the sandwich to the front of the quilt sandwich and then handstitch the folded edge to the back.

Before sewing all those little squares together, measure your top (top edge plus side edge then multiply by 2 to get total inches of all 4 sides then add about 10-12"). Then count the squares to see if you have enough of them to go all the way around your quilt. And don't forget that your finished size of your squares will be 2" once sewn into the strip.

As the saying goes 'it's your quilt and there are no quilt police'!

I would also caution you about excess bulk. Normally, binding strips are joined on the diagonal so you don't have to deal with a seam on the front and the back. From your questions, it sounds like you are a new-ish quilter. (BTW, you quilt the quilt, trim, then add the binding). Binding is a skill lots of folks find challenging. Dealing with all those additional seams is going to add to the challenge. I would consider using long lengths of one fabric, and add a square here and there, making sure that your joining seams don't land on a corner.

Thank you for your help. I'm having to much trouble figuring out what of the colors I should use as the binding guess I can wait to figure it out till I have quilted it. I'm also thinking it would be to bulky to make all those little squares to. I did sew them together for the border it was very easy to do but time consuming. So I guess I need to stare at the quilt a little longer to figure out what color would be best. But since this was my first I have no trouble doing that cause I'm still amazed I did it in the first place. lol lol

Can you post a picture? The quilters on this forum are a wealth of information and can give you more specific help and ideas if they have more details.

Is it your double hourglass quilt? It is very pretty! I don't think I would use the off white to bind it in. I like to think of the binding as the frame of the quilt. I would use one of the colored fabrics to bind it with.

Yup it is my Double Hour Glass. I have enough of one of the colors to make the binding so I will use that thank you for all of your help. Im'm quilting it today hope to have it all done by Monday.

I agree. Your seams are diagonally sewn on binding strips to dispense with the bulk. Do you have a LQS that you can visit?? I am sure someone can show you the tricks of the trade. I would NEVER bind a quilt with white fabric. Good Luck!!