Quilt Binding Tip: Making Ends Meet!

One of the hardest parts of putting binding on a piece, is joining the two ends. In fact, I still have a cheat sheet for which way to roll the binding, and which way to diagonally sew, that is taped to the wall next to my machine:

The real key to working around the awkwardness of this part of the process, is creating a folded "pleat" in your piece. You simply fold it in and lay it over, to give some extra room to work with the two ends of your binding:

This gives you more ease of fabric, when lining up the ends. The other thing I do, is use one of my small rulers, and slip it between the binding and the quilt to give a nice hard surface to push the pins against. This really eliminates fighting with the layers, and shifting, and getting the pin stuck too far down attaching the binding to the quilt, etc.

I also leave the quilt in the folded position while I am sewing the binding ends together:

As well as when I iron the joined seam open:

Unfold the piece, and give it a quick press with the iron to redo the binding fold! You're ready to finishing stitching the last bit of your binding to the top!

One of the (dis)advantages of doing smaller pieces, is that I have gotten a lot of practice doing my bindings! I have tried many ways of finishing the edges of my pieces, but I still prefer the perfect binding method!

It turns out that great minds must indeed think alike! Monika over at My Sweet Prairie posted about binding on her Tips on Tuesdays post this week! Check it out!

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