The No-Trimmed Quilt, or What Happens When You Do!

I've learned so much from teaching No Tails Binding! Mostly, I've been surprised to know that some quilters:

1) aren't familiar with the concept of squaring-up blocks, squaring up a quilt center, and how to add measured borders that square-up the whole quilt.

2) are accustomed to making binding that leaves less binding showing on the front of the quilt, and more binding showing on the back.

While I don't mean to sound like an authority on binding, I do know that in a judged quilt show, it's binding that quickly separates the "men from the boys."

Quilt bindings are critically examined for these components:

• Corners that are sewn closed, either by hand or machine.
• Binding that's straight.
• Binding that shows equally on the front and back.
• Binding that is fully stuffed.

I'll explain further with my examples. In all these, I'm demonstrating with 2-1/4" wide binding.

Here's the way many quilters sew binding to a quilt.

The quilt is trimmed to remove backing and batting, so it's all even with the quilt top. Then, placing the raw edge of the binding even with the trimmed quilt, the binding is machine-sewn to the quilt with a quarter-inch seam,

When the binding is wrapped to the back of the quilt, pulling it against the edge of the quilt, less binding shows on the front than the back. Technically, this is incorrect.

Of course, it only matters if you care! Like if your quilt is going to be examined closely, or judged. For demonstration purposes only, I pulled this binding all the way to the back and hand-stitched it down. This is what I don't want.

And, to further make my point, if I hand sew this binding to the back correctly, aligning the binding fold with the machine-stitching line - so the front and back binding widths are the same - this leaves part of the binding unstuffed, as you can see along the edge. Again, this is what I don't want.

So you may ask: "How do I sew binding to a quilt so the front and back bindings are even, and the binding is stuffed?"

The answer is: "Do not trim the backing and batting even with the quilt top."

This means if you're hiring a longarm quilter, be sure to ask that she doesn't trim your quilt! 

Here's the way I sew binding to a quilt.

1) Use a marker to draw a straight line around the untrimmed edges of your quilt. Not only is this used as a guide for sewing binding, it ensures that the sides of your quilt are straight.

2) Align the raw edge of the binding with the line you've drawn. Sew 1/4" from the drawn line. 

2) Then trim just right! This is key. "Just right" is 3/8" from the machine stitching line for binding that is 2-1/4" wide.

For 2-1/4"-wide binding, trim 3/8" from machine stitching line

If you prefer binding that's 2-1/2" wide, trim 1/2" from machine stitching line.

The result is binding that's:

1) fully stuffed with backing and batting that wasn't trimmed away; and
2) the same finished width on the front as on the back!

Aim for binding that's the same width on the front and back.

And if you use my favorite No Tails Binding method, you'll have crisp, machine-sewn mitered corners too.

I could share more about what I've learned while teaching, but admittedly this stuff is difficult to explain in photos. Hopefully though, I've given you some food for thought, and perhaps helped you improve your own binding. After all, binding is the best part of making a quilt because it means you're done! Linda