Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Machine Stitched Binding

To be completely honest, sewing the binding onto a quilt by hand is not my favorite part of the quilting process.  I love the look of hand sewn binding on a quilt, but it has become a chore I dread.  It can be tedious and time consuming, and let's face it, with a 3 year old and a 11 month old running around I don't have a lot of down time to sew anything by hand these days.  Once I get started it's not so bad, but I will put off a project for months to avoid doing it.  (cough, cough...for instance Jake's baby quilt or perhaps the Noah's Ark quilt...cough, cough)


But then I discovered this tutorial on one of my favorite quilting blogs, Red Pepper Quilts.  Step by step instructions, complete with pictures, showing me how to stitch the binding with my machine.  Where have you been all my life??

First I tried it on a tiny baby quilt.  It started out a little rocky, but with a little bit of practice, I finally got the hang of it.

So then I gave it a whirl on the Noah's Ark quilt...




Success!
 

Never again will I let a project go unfinished simply because of the dreaded binding!

5 comments:

  1. Love, love, love Red Pepper Quilts! The colours in your quilt are so vibrant. Great job!

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  2. The piggy is sweet. I tackled binding yesterday using bobby pins,works great!

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  3. Nice! I'm working on a doll quilt, so this is perfect timing! :)

    Andrea
    www.addicted2tutes.blogspot.com

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  4. I had a quilt that took me close to 2 years b/4 I finished it, just b/c of the binding! Great job Ricki, looks great!

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  5. I'm not a huge fan of hand stitching binding, either. I machine stitched the binding on the two quilts I've made. I've only hand stitched on mug rugs :)

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