I've almost finished Lizzie's birthday quilt and am planning on tying it with narrow satin ribbon. The design uses 3" (finished size) squares. I was thinking of tying at alternating intersections of the squares. Will this be sufficient?

Also this is the first time for me to add binding to a quilt. Always before I've just brought the backing fabric around for the binding, but this time my top and backing are the same width, so that won't work. How wide should I cut my binding strips? I'm guessing I will need to cut 2 strips the length of the quilt (~60") and 2 strips the width of the quilt (~45") by however wide they need to be.

Thanks in advance for the help!

I always cut my binding 2 1/2 inches and fold it in half.

OK. Will try that.

Does the spacing on my tying sound OK?

What kind of batting are you using.

I just searched and found a video for you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cedg4...eature=related

You might have problems with the satin ribbon staying tied.

also found this tutorial on strips for your binding

http://sewinspired.blogspot.com/2007...-tutorial.html

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe a tiny dot of fray-check on the knot would help hold it.

how wide you cut the strips for the binding will be determined, in large part, by how wide you want the finished binding to be. The "formula" given my by my early quilting instructors is: For a folded (double layer) binding, determine width of finished binding then multiply by 7 to determine width of strip to cut. Example 1 - for one quarter inch finished binding: 1/4 times 7 is 1 and 3/4 inch cut strip. or..for half inch finished binding: 1/2 times 7 is 3 and 1/5 inch strip.

From a practical standpoint, this formula works well if you're hand stitching the final binding seam. Since I don't do handwork I've adapted that formula to accommodate machine stitching the final seam...but there's a different discussion thread on all that.

Why would people do different widths of final binding? In my case, just for the look of it. I prefer a bigger binding on a bigger quilt...

The satin ribbon might give you a problem. I don't know what kind of machine you have, but if it'll do a tack or french knot that should hold it in place.

I am wondering about the ends of the ribbon fraying and the knot coming lose because of that....

Thanks all!
FYI, I'm actually tying knots then tying bows on top of the knots. Also I'm using 1/8" ribbon which does not fray as easily as the 1/4" ribbon. I may also tie the loops of the bows together for a more secure bow. Since I'm using 12" lengths of ribbon this should not be a problem as far as looking right on the centers of 3" squares. Had originally thought about tying at the intersection of the squares, but it didn't look right doing it that way.