Living This Creative Life

I have two favorite quotes. The first one is by Emile Zola, "If you asked me what I came into this world to do, I would tell you that I came to live out loud". I don't know who the second one is by, but it goes like this, "If you're not living on the edge then you might as well jump". Both of these sentiments sum up my personal philosophy of this experience we call life on earth. Enjoy!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Piped or flanged binding

Hey Gang,
I promised a few of you the instructions for making a two color
binding, with a 1/8tg" narrow piping/flange. Here are the instructions;

1. Begin by cutting your binding and piping strips. For an 1/8th"
finished piping/flange and 1/4" finished binding, cut the piping
fabric 1 3/8" and the binding fabric 1 1/8".

2. Cut as many lengths of each fabric as needed to go around the
entire perimeter of your quilt top plus 20". Sew the necessary
number of like fabric strips together end to end using a diagonal
seam. Press these seams open.

3. Sew the long piping strip to the long binding strip so that it
finishes at 2" wide. Press toward the narrower binding fabric.





4. Press this long strip in half along the entire length as shown.







5. You will be sewing the binding/piping duo to the BACK side
of the quilt. Begin on the bottom edge of the quilt and leave
a long 10" tail at the beginning and backstitch. Stitch around the entire perimeter of the quilt, folding a miter at each corner. To do
this, stop 1/4" from the corner of the quilt and back stitch. Cut the
thread and turn the quilt a 1/4 turn. Fold the binding strip up then fold it back down so that the fold lines up with the raw edge of
the quilt as shown in the two photos at left.


6. Continue sewing the binding on and mitering each corner. Stop
at least 10" away from where you began and backstitch.




7. Bring the beginning and end of the binding strip to the center
of the unstitched area, lining up with the raw edge of the quilt.
Fold each end back leaving an opening of a scant 1/4" and press
the folds with an iron to crease. Open up the folded over binding
strip end to reveal the backside of the fabric and draw a line in the
fold you just pressed. Draw a line through the lengthwise fold of
the binding too to make a +. Do this on both ends of the binding
as shown at left.


8. Using the 45 degree angle on your ruler, line up the edge of the
ruler so that it intersects with the + sign you marked in the center of the binding strip and the 45 degree angle line is aligned with the
raw edge of the binding/quilt. Mark the diagonal line with a pencil.
Do this on both ends of the binding. Using your rotary cutter, cut
1/4" to the outside of the drawn line, leaving a 1/4" seam
allowance,













9.With the right sides together, pin the two angles to each other
being careful to line up the seam where the piping fabric and
binding fabric line up.







10. Pin across the join so that you have a 1/4" tip of excess on
both sides as shown at left. Sew the seam and press it open.

11. Re-fold the binding and align it's raw edges with the raw edge
of the quilt top. The un-sewn length of binding should just fit in
the un-sewn area of the quilt. If it's a little too short thats o.k.,
however if it's too long, take the binding in as needed.



12. Sew the binding to the quilt. With the back side of the quilt up, press the binding away from the quilt as shown at left. Do this all the way
around the perimeter.










13. Turn the quilt over so that it is face up and fold over the
binding and press. Do this all the way around the perimeter and
pin every 3" or so.






14. Stitch the binding to the front of the quilt by machine. Do this in the seam joining the piping and binding or top stitch on the edge
of the piping. Use thread that matches the piping color. It will
look best if stitched in the ditch between the two fabrics, but top
stitching along the edge will give you another option.


I hope you all enjoy this technique.
Until next time,
Heather

1 comment:

Kathy said...

I tried your method and it works great. It is actually easier than a solid binding. Thank you for your tutorial.