Quilt Binding

A lot of people don't like to do quilt binding. It can be quite difficult to sew binding onto a quilt, especially if your quilt layers don't match up and they seldom do match up just right. Today, I'm going to tell you how to bind a quilt with a new method that I learned from Sandra, my co-founder of Sandrea Baby Quilts. Sandra has been making quilts for more than twenty years. I'm going to share this technique used for binding quilts that she learned from her late Grandma Vivian.

Instead of having an actual binding that you have to sew onto the quilt on both sides, there is a much easier way. Simply make the quilt backing an inch larger than the quilt top on all four sides. It can be more that an inch for larger quilts, depending on how wide you want your border to be. It works better if you cut out the backing after the quilt top is finished so you can make sure the backing is big enough (i.e. an inch larger than the quilt top on all four sides). After the layers are quilted together (the quilt top, batting, and quilt backing), simply fold each side of the quilt backing over twice and pin, every few inches, onto the quilt top. Then sew around the edge with a sewing machine, removing pins as you go. This takes half the time of a traditional quilt binding, and it looks just as good or better because it is much easier to get it on there straight. Just make sure your quilt backing matches the top well because it will become your border on the top of the quilt as well. Like I said, for Queen and King size quilts, you may want to make it two inches on every side to make a wide border.