Last spring I didn't have time to finish a quilt and wanted to take it to guild for Show and Tell so I glued it like Sharon Schamber came home and sewed it down, I gave it to my sister in June The first week in Oct I get a frantic phone call from her saying I washed my quilt and it is coming apart, I had missed one section of sewing it down, of course I was razzed at guild when I told them.
Joan

Thanks for that Dawn,
.
I think I placed it on the back as I sewed the binding on the front and slip stitched the edge so it lay flat, I only had 1" tape then took the binding over it on the back.

Since we have moved on to the application of the binding, I want to tell you about Alex Anderson's new Floriani line. It is called Quilters Select Appli-stick. She has a 1/4" wide tape that you can place all the way down the edge of your quilt. Iron it on (no sewing required) after you have sewn on the binding, and then just roll the binding over and stick it (pressure sensitive) and it is all ready to sew in your preferred method. Mine is by hand. There are no pins or clippie thingies in your binding, to get in the way! It does have a little bit of stretch, if placed on a bias binding, but on a sewn straight of grain it acts similar to the twill tape, and is much thinner. I showed this method during my binding demo at our show, and most of the ladies thought it was pretty cool, so jotted down where they could purchase it. Also, it works in a pinch if you are running into a time crunch on taking a picture for a deadline for a quilt show. Looks like a finished binding, but is only "stuck" on, and can be twilled and sewn later!

Dawn

The reason I use a zigzag stitch is because when I did a straight stitch the edges of the tapes wanted to curl which definitely made the binding lumpy and ironing them didn't help, at least for me. So I went for the zigzag. I do a rather wide stitch, but not a long stitch. I sew it wide enough to catch the edges of the tape, but don't go over. Also I recently saw Sharon Shamber and her daughter Christy's method of gluing down your binding. At first I thought no way, but tried it and OMG do I love that technique. You can find it on any YouTube video. My bindings look much better.

Let us know how these techniques work out for you.

Sharon in foggy Colorado

Thank you very much Nancy, for the tip about the twill tape. I'm interested to hear if you find the zig-zag works better. Being a dressmaker I would have thought that the zig-zag stitch would give more stretch, which is what you want to avoid, than the straight stitch. Of course it depends very much on the quality of the twill tape. I will see if I can find some 1/4" wide tape for my next set of table mats and try both stitches out.
Marianne

Thanks for the twill tape method. I had never done this, but today I attached it to the top edge of my Canberra Tree quilt. I cut A piece for each side that was 1/2 " less than the measurement that side was supposed to be. That way I'd keep it 1/4 " from each end so I wouldn't have anything extra in the corner miter area. I then sewed my binding to the back, my preferred method. After setting the stitches, and turning the binding to the front, I was able to stitch my binding down with my 'heart beat' stitch. I feel it hangs better than I've experienced in the past. And this piece has a lot of varying amounts of stitching, so if it would be wonky it wouldn't have surprised me in the least.



It is hanging from three little mini clips on the curtain rod!
I will probably use this idea often. And I didn't even notice any extra thickness in the edges!
Thanks
Luann

Thanks again Nancy and Sharon I'm adding twill tape to my edges (zigzagged) before binding!
Barb

Forgot to say that I'm definitely going to try the zigzag. I think that'll work even better. Thanks for the idea, Sharon!

I've sewn my twill tape on the front, too. I did use it on my Tea for Two quilt, so you are welcome to feel it in Houston. I've had trouble keeping it in place on the bottom when sewing the long line of tape, so I sew a couple of inches on the bottom first to hold it in place, then turn the quilt around and sew the rest of the tape from the top. I bought a huge roll of the twill tape for cheap from wawak.com, my favorite online sewing supply place. That's also where I get things like Thread Heaven and blue water-soluable marking pens.

BTW I sew my twill tape on the front.

I also use David Taylor's twill tape method. When I am at JoAnn's I grab a couple cards of 1/4" tape to have on hand. You really don't notice the extra bulk because the tape isn't thick, at least I haven't noticed it, nor the judges. I also use a wide zigzag instead of long straight stitch; that just works for me better. I have only used it on big quilts.

Sharon in CO

I did this for my Chinese Whispers quilt that was wonky,probably on Nancy's advice. It works well. Thanks for the reminder

So Nancy, do you sew the twill tape to the back side of the quilt, since there are more layers of binding fabric on the front side? I'll have to try this. It seems ingenious, but I worry about adding more bulk. Did you sew twill tape into Tea for Two? If so, I need to bring a glove to Winner's Circle, and feel your binding (with your permission) after the award presentations, as you proudly stand there smiling and answering everyone's questions!

Dawn