How Do You Bind?
 

Personally, I think whoever came up with the concept of binding had a sick mind. I know there are other ways of finishing a quilt and those work OK for smaller projects but not the bigger ones.

How do you bind your quilt? Do you machine bind it or hand bind it? After cross-stitching for over 20 years, I swore I’d never hand sew again but after yet another less-than-perfect quilt binding by machine, I’m giving serious consideration to doing it by hand. Yeecht.

I bind my quilts by machine. I enjoy hand work and find it very relaxing to sit and watch tv and sew the bindings to the back by hand.

Depends on the quilt. If I need to finish in a hurry I bind with the "faux flange" method. I machine sew it to the back then flip it to the front, glue in place with elmers washable school glue then SITD along the faux flange. But if I am not in a hurry I machine stitch to the front flip the binding to the back and hand sew it. I like both methods and I don't mind the hand sewing at all.

Here is a tute to the faux flange method.https://www.quiltingboard.com/tutori...ge-t77821.html The only thing I do different is cut my strips at 1.25 and 1.5 to end up with 2.25 wide binding strip. I also press it to the "flange" fabric to fill it up so it give the appearance of piping rather than a flange. I also use monofilament thread when doing the top stitch so it doesn't show at all. Here is a close up pic on this thread: https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictur...g-t275921.html

I am not the best at my hand skills and it takes me forever, but I hand sew the binding on the back. I put it on the front by machine. I use pins, no glue. Mitered corners, "invisible" final seam.

I almost always make French fold continuous loop bias binding. I typically cut a bit wider than most people, at 3". For the last few months I've been trying not folding and pressing my binding first as recommended in a thread here. I don't really see any difference in the fold or not, but as I said, my binding tends to be a little wider and I often use a puffier batt than many people.

I tried putting on the binding with the machine both sides and just didn't like the finish and/or just never learned to do it well.

I sew the binding down then hand stitch to the back, I take my time and sew a few hours in the evening till it’s all done. I don’t mind it, but it’s not my favorite part of quilting!

That is stunning! You should be extremely proud.

Yep, that's my problem, too. I can get the binding sewn on the back with a Perfect 1/4" seam but when I turn it to the front and start stitching it down, it somehow is no longer perfect. I just don't understand it.

I do it both ways. I don't mind hand sewing the binding if the quilt calls for it. I usually sew onto the back by machine, flip over and sew the binding down on the front. Comes out pretty good. I saw a tutorial with Donna Jordan of Jordan fabrics and she cuts her strips 2.5 inches, sews on the front with a 1/4 inch seam, flips over, sews from the front in the ditch formed by the binding, and says it is wide enough to catch on the back. I'm going to try it. It's just for me, a table topper, so if it doesn't work, I'll know for next time.

I do all three--baby and charity quilts binding is machine sewn to the back and machine stitched down on the front. Some quilts just look better with a flange style binding and I will stitch it down using a thread matching the flange. I have actually started cutting some of my bindings at 2 inches wide. I noticed that my Pfaff seems to sew quite a scant 1/4 inch seam and the 2 inch binding looks very neat when hand stitched to the back.

It really comes down to what you are most comfortable doing. Quilting is supposed to be fun. Having said that--I have a king sized quilt that needs the hand sewing finished but it is dark on dark with dark thread and I am having trouble seeing it except in natural light in the late afternoon. It is taking forever but it will look right!

I machine sew it to the front and hand sew on the back. I've tried it other ways, but hand sewing looks the best for me. I don't mind the time it takes.