I am still learning my favorite way to bind, but I use a 1/4 inch seam allowance to put my binding on with, and usually give my quilt roughly an extra quarter inch of backing and batting beyond that to 'fill' the binding. I am still working on getting that perfect mitered corner with double-fold binding and bias tape binding, and have learned the hard way to cut my strips no less than 2.25 inches. Anything smaller than that and I really have to fight with it.

On my last quilt I tried the flange binding and loved it...so much easier than any other binding method I have tried. I even managed almost-respectable miters! The only drawback I have found is with the method I used the bulk of the binding ends up on the front of the quilt, not evenly distributed between front and back. I wouldn't use it if there are any points along the outside edge because they can get cut off easily.

You do want your binding to be fat. If you have emptiness in your binding then it will wear out more than if your binding was full. I sew my binding on and go a few inches and remove from the machine and fold over the binding to see if I am taking a big enough seam allowance so my seam allowance will be different sizes every time. Another thing I may do is trim off some of the quilt edge to make the binding fit.

Oh here comes that crazy Peckish again... :D

Don't iron it in half. Seriously. It will roll around the raw edge of the quilt easier and hey you get to skip a step! :thumbup:

Ditto. This is exactly what I do and have done for nearly 20 years now. Seems to work just fine, every time.

I agree, I learned from Peckish not to iron your binding in half. It really works better that way. Thanks again for that great tip!

I'll just assume I'm missing something, because my binding is always full because I just fold it over onto the back along the edge of the quilt. But, the back of the binding can be larger or smaller than the width on the front. Is it supposed to be the same???

I have been confused on this same question myself. Rhonda K., your comments really helped. Thank you, everyone.

several ideas and you'll need to figure out what works for you. My experience is that different sizes of quilts may require different sizes of bindings. I wouldn't want to put a quarter inch binding on a very large quilt (usually) and wouldn't want a large/wide binding on a small quilt. Here's a trick a local quilter taught me and it works well.

This is for the double fold French binding which many quilters use:

1 - decide how wide you want the finished binding to be...quarter inch, three eighths inc, half inch, etc. this is determined by the size of the seam allowance you take.

2 - Now - do you finish your binding by hand or by machine? it makes a difference in how wide to cut your strip. If you envision the side (cut) view of the finished binding you see the double layer of binding fabric in the seam allowance then folded back over the SA and around to the back of the quilt ---six layers of fabric in the binding strip which curves around the quilt body. Now....

- finish by hand? multiply your final size by 7 to cut. Multiplying by 7 accommodates the length required by folding the binding over the edge of the quilt and at the original seamline. If you only multiply by 6 you might not be able to cover the machine stitch line.
- finish by machine? multiply final size by 7 and add 1/4 inch to cut. This extra width allows enough fabric to cover the initial seamline and have fabric that the machine can easily catch as you finish by machine.

I do it this way also.