Jinny is just back from vacation so while she’s unpacking and getting back into the swing of things the staff has decided to take over her blog just this once. (Well, we’ll probably do it again because this is kind of fun!)
We’re the ones you see every day when you stop by the Studio or talk to on the phone. While Jinny is busy designing beautiful quilts and fabrics and teaching fabulous classes, we get to answer your everyday questions and help you through problems you may be having with your projects.
There is one little thing we see every now and then, one of those things that when we explain an easier way to do it, the reaction we get is, “Duh…why didn’t I think of that!” You’ve finished quilting your quilt, ready to put on the binding. You’re in the home stretch and your beautiful quilt is almost done. You line up the cut edges of your binding to the front of your quilt and sew away. Then you turn the binding to the back and stitch it down. This is normally what you would do on any quilt but what about if you bordered your quilt with one of Jinny’s gorgeous border print fabrics?
People report of problems getting the binding to line up with the lines on the border print. They’ve ripped out stitches, resewn, become very frustrated. What’s the easy way to do this? Sew the binding on to the back then turn it to the front. Yes, this is the “duh” moment.
With the binding on the back, you sew from the front using one of the lines from the border print as a guide. In the image above, notice that the line of stitching is just outside of the outer black line in the border print.
When you turn the binding to the front, cover your stitches and just touch the line in the border print. Most of us here in the Studio like to do this step by hand with a small blind stitch. It comes out great every time!
Check out “Adding Binding to Quilted Projects” under our Tips & Lessons tab for easy-to-follow instructions and videos.
Many thanks! This tip is a very useful. Very nice to see you all 🙂