Paula mentioned that she always trimmed the quilt before attaching the binding, and does it make it easier not to trim it beforehand? I'd like to think so. Below is a picture of a quilt binding that I trimmed before sewing, and before I knew about the .5 extra.
You can see a little waviness and it doesn't hold so straight. Also can see a little indenting due to no filler/extra batting puff.
Now below is the side of my aunt's quilt and you can see that it's much straighter looking (I haven't washed or blocked or anything with the quilt yet).
I also think it's better to trim the binding after you sew it on because I would imagine there's some stretch/shifting in the fabric (even after it's been quilted) and not trimming ahead of time will help prevent undue stress to the edge. This theory applies to borders - if you're going to measure borders, measure the center of the quilt because the edges will stretch out a little bit. Bonnie shows and explains what happens when you use the edges to measure for a border - every long armer's nightmare! So if that can happen to borders... what's preventing it from happening to bindings?
And the picture below shows why you gotta fold down the right side of the binding before the left - this one is crooked, of centered and unpleasing to the eye.
Below is a nicely mitered corner, straight edges with pleasing "plump" to them and a long ways from my first binding days! :)
Note to self: email my mom or have my aunt email me so I can make a label for the quilt and mail it off before the baby is due! :P
Still fighting my cold here. I have it way worse than my husband - lots of sneezing and some coughing. All he did was sniffle and whine. ;) Actually he hates whining. But at least I never get the flu/throw up... so I guess bad colds are a good thing? Just hoping I don't end up giving the cold right back to my husband! :)
Leah
4 comments:
I always trim after the binding is on also. I seem to feel I have better control of the quilt having that little extra to hold onto. Your binding on the baby quilt looks beautiful!
OK, I can understand that you don't trim the batting. You don't trim the backin either, right? And, one more question, how do you keep the binding straight with the top? I assume you pin it on and align the edge of the binding with the edge of the top.
Leah - I went ahead and mailed your magazines yeastrday - because I was at the post office anyway! Enjoy! Thanks again for checking out my auctions.
Sarah
I never thought of sewing the bindig on before trimming but I will definitely try it on my next quilt.It makes a lot of sense. I also appreciate your info on ending the binding on a slant. Looks a lot easier than the way I have been doing it. Too bad I need to finish another quilt before I can try it!
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