I machine stitch mine on the front, then flip it over and hand sew the back. But the join (where the start meets the end) always looks bulky and never looks neat. What am I doing wrong? :-(

are you just sewing it straight accross or are you doing it on the angle? straight across gives you bulk where the ends meet, to make all of your joins it should be on the 45 degree angle to lessen the bulk there. It is a bit harder but once you get a hang of it there is nothing to it.

When I join the strips to make the binding, I sew them on the 45 degree angle, and they sit nice and flat and barely visible. The bit I'm having trouble with is where I start sewing the binding to the quilt, and then go all the way around and end up back where I started, it's that join that I'm having trouble with.

do you sew that on the 45 as well?

Here's my problem..... this is taken from looking at the front of the quilt (the triangle of paper is just so you can see properly, black binding on black fabric is hard to photograph.)

I fold the binding down on the 45 and sew straight across the 1/4inch seam.

But when I fold the binding over to the back, it's very bulky and the join is raised and very visible. I've just seen a close up in another thread of a quilt and I can't even see where the binding is joined at all. :-(

you can attach both ends like the joins in the rest of the binding. It is hard to expain without pictures, I have a quilt that I have to bind, I will try and do it tomorrow, it has to be done for Thurs anyway, and I will take pictures of it and post them for you to follow. Bacially you sew most of the binding on, leaving the two ends free, mark and join them on the 45 and then finish sewing them down, then you won't be able to just look and figure out where you started and ended as it will look like all the other joins.

Ahhhh... I think I get what you mean.

If you do have time to take photos, I'd appreciate it. My skills are getting much better and it's one of those finishing things that is bugging me because it never looks right.

there are others that finish of the binding like this, you are not the only one. some days you need to do what works, lets hope that the pictures help you learn a different way, especially since you are not totally happy with that you are doing. Taking pictures along the way is easy, I tend to do it a lot anyway. I am getting good at it and it is good practice for me. I have a mystery quilt coming up on Sat that I need practice for. Though all the instructions are set for them. I am just proofing them at this point.

The hardest part is getting it the right length so it doesn't have a buckle or have to stretch to far over the space left for joining.

Yeah... the buckling bit is why I wouldn't have thought of doing it that way.

But I'm definitely not happy with how I have been doing it!

Thank you :-)

not a problem, I am on my way to bed, but I will get on it tomorrow.

When I started doing it, I would pull it out at least once to get it in the right spot and sewn the right way. now I have it down pat and rarely have to do it a second time