What Are Your Techniques For A Perfect Binding?
 

I was just reading another thread about how a quilt is judged for a show and everyone was talking about a perfect, full binding as being one of the main criteria for a winning quilt. That got me thinking...what do you do to make your binding as best as it can be for a show? Tips? Tricks? Stitching techniques? On the bias? Mitered corners? etc.

1st I cut 2.25" binding ~ miter all your seams including connecting the section together
2nd Make sure you flip up and fold down that it is absolutely perfect.
3rd I leave just the width of a pin excess of the fold down on the top edge of the quilt.
4th Make sure your quilt is SQUARE at the corner. NO wonky borders.
5th Make sure you leave enough of your quilt edges to make the binding full and not sagging
6th Sorry to say this, but HAND stitch your binding to the back. it looks much more professional.

GOOD LUCK. Hope I didn't forget anything. After 2 decades, it becomes automatic !!! :)

Everything Maniac said. Except I didn't know trick #3 so will employ that one the next time (my miters were always a tad off, now I suspect because my fold was too tight to the edge).

"6th Sorry to say this, but HAND stitch your binding to the back. it looks much more professional."
.. and I've been thinking for the last 2 decades that "I must be crazy to do this" Maybe I haven't been as insane as I've always thought I was. That's reassuring to me today!!!

Yeah...ditto here. I would add that when hand stitching the binding, make sure that your stitches are small and even. I like to use a tunnel stitch, so that the thread doesn't show much. It's a pain to do it that way, but if I take my time, I sometimes find it's actually relaxing.

Thanks for that tip about folding the binding with a pin's width of room.

I also use hair clips to hold mine in place after sewing and pressing for hand stitching the back...saves on fingers - no pins. On smaller quilts, i use Elmer's school glue to glue the back down for hand stitching.

I think it helps also (1) to *not* iron your binding before applying. This helps it roll better over the edge; and (2) after sewing binding on, iron the binding away from the quilt (but do not press a crease into the binding) before folding over.

I was told by a quilt judge several years ago that when hand stitching the binding to the back also include a couple of stitches on the miter on both the back and front sides.

Exactly what I was going to say.

I used the Sharon Schamber method on my last quilt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2hWQ5-ZccE and I ADORE this method. it takes a lot longer than it usually does (for me) and it's slightly messy, but I couldn't stop staring at the 'perfection' of the binding. I normally just cut a three inch binding strip and machine stitch the binding on. There's always a flap of extra binding, but on utility quilts, this doesn't bother me at all. I will still do this, as it's quick and painless (can bind a queen size in less than an hour... yes please), but for the 'important' quilts Sharon's method is the one I'll use.