Just about every week, a quilter asks how to make her binding better – either how to keep the wrinkles out of it as she sews or how to get a square mitered corner.

 

Last week, the question was about smooth, square corners.

So, here are a couple of my tips:

 

• * First, I use wider binding than most quilters. How much shows on the front of the quilt is up to you. Sometimes I have as narrow as a 1/4 inch of binding showing on the front. On other quilts, there is 1 inch on the front. Whatever is left is folded onto the back of my quilt. But, my binding is always about 2 inches wide. I have found that the extra width makes the binding easier to handle, and allows the corners to be smoother.
• * I end my stitching 1/4 inch away from the corner of the quilt as I sew the binding on. Then I fold my corner to get the 45 degree angle, fold the binding back on itself, and then begin stitching at the very edge of the quilt – securing all of the folded layers. This keeps everything in place in the corner, so when you fold the binding onto the back of the quilt, you have a nice, crisp corner both on the front and on the back.
• * I do not clip my corners on the quilt. If the sewing and seam allowances are right, the corner of the quilt helps shape the corner in the binding. By clipping the corners, you just have the binding to keep the corner square, which sometimes isn’t enough.

There are pictures of how I miter the corner as well as a video:

http://how-to-quilt.com/articles/9003-binding.php

 

You can also view the webinar presentation of How to Bind a Quilt, where you will see 6 different ways to bind a quilt and get my secret tips and techniques to make binding a quilt easier and smoother.

http://how-to-quilt.com/articles/9003-binding.php

 

Happy Quilting!

Penny Halgren

www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com

P.S. This binding technique works whether you are sewing bias or straight grain binding, or whether you use single fold or double fold binding:

 

http://how-to-quilt.com/articles/9003-binding.php