ipquilter wrote: I agree!

I vote we blame everything on the solar flairs!

i think i understand what you mean - i never had any problems and thought it quite foolproof - of course i'm a "fudge it and make it fit" kind of person - so i would not even notice if it's not all as it should be :shock: :shock: :shock: (or try very hard not to notice...)
i've been wanting to do the continuous binding for ages but have been rather scared of that one

Lotti, excellent tutorials, thank you! The favorite you link is the kind that was so difficult for me -- not the cutting, but getting that right angle to fold over properly and line up straight. My straight edges kept being higher or lower than the piece before, if that makes any sense. Kind of like this: ______

---

________ where the lines are the bottom edge of whatever piece I was adding. I just could NOT get that to work out. At all.

Joyce, I would *LOVE* to come and watch you do it. The tutorial on continuous binding looks tricky. I'll have to practice that in small chunks before I try it for real......or maybe I'll find a you tube on it, LOL!

I make continuous bias binding and pre-cut it before joining. Heather, you should come over and I'll show you.

heather, check out these methods of making the bias binding...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cedg4qE7MSo
http://modernquiltlove.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/how-to-make-continuous-bias-binding/

my favorite method is:
http://sherimhoward.blogspot.com/2009/03/making-bias-binding-tutorial.html

good luck on your next bindings

Yep... Margo hit it right. Just bulky. Hoping my Personal Binder does all right with that. (I forgot to leave the binder clips with her yesterday!)

Margo wrote:
ah, since I've not graduated to even attempting to miter my corners yet, no wonder I didn't know this!

if that is the only issue, I will breathe a nice sigh of relief. Thanks Margo!

Heather, a seam in the binding that falls right at a corner of the quilt puts excess bulk in the corner and makes it difficult to make a nice miter.

Can I jump in this thread to ask --- and bear with me, remember, I'm a beginner! --- why is it bad to have binding seams next to seams in the quilt itself?? Or near corners??

'Cause I completely didn't even pay attention to that AT ALL on my first quilt (the red/white/blue I posted a while ago) and it's likely I have this issue, maybe. Is it significant enough an issue (like, the binding will rip off and the quilt fall apart kind of significant....) that I need to check and redo as needed?? Or is it just an issue of aesthetics?

Thanks for explaining ladies! (and I LOVE the idea to use wide fabrics; making that biased binding was a pain in the rear and if I can manage to never have to do that again, I would be thrilled.....I much prefer my method of "just cut it wider...." although I imagine that breaks all kinds of rules.....)

Thank you all for your support!! Many smiles ... Margo, you should have called me!! Lorchen... I needed to know there was a real reason for binding not working out. I am going to use that all week!! Nancy, that is a brilliant idea to find wide fabrics for bindings. This fabric line didn't have that option but I sure will keep my eye out for that in the future!!

Love this group and that you understand.

This morning I did redo the end 20" or so. I had the ending/join seam, one seam RIGHT next to it, and then a new strip had joined on about 6" back. UGH! (You know when you make bias binding using the start w/ the square method, some of those seams are so close. This was right near my ending point.) I added in a long strip and took out about 3 seams. So all this chat gave me that idea/incentive. You are good!!!

Oh Nancy! That is a wonderful idea!! Only two seams!! I love it!!

I do the "layout and rough measure" before I stitch my bindings. Then I pin the starting spot, so I don't lose track of it. Takes a few minutes but they are minutes better spent before I sew and have to rip...

Great idea Nancy!

Hi Joyce,

Your post could not have been more timely. Last night, I finished a 53" x 53" baby quilt and wanted to share a tip that I found quite by accident. This scrappy quilt was made completely from scraps in my stash. I searched my stash for a binding fabric and came up short on every fabric considered. So, for the binding, I "borrowed" a bit of an 108" wide navy print fabric being saved for another quilt's backing--so the binding only has two seams, centered on each side of the quilt. It occurred to me while sewing on the binding that I would not have to worry about my seams falling into the mitered quilt corners. Then I thought, why not buy a quarter yard of 108" wide backing fabric to use for quilt bindings? I use 2 1/2" strips. So, if you typically use more narrow strips, then 1/8 yd. might be enough.