Binding question

[Shellymoon]

Yes, I came over to the dark side and made a baby quilt.
I'm confused about the binding. Here are my questions:
1.I hate cutting bias, so I bought prepackaged binding. It is folded in fourths and is more like bias tape. All the tutorials I've seen show the happy quilters using homemade binding that is only one strip of fabric folded in half. Should I unfold this purchased binding and iron it out,. Or should I unfold it, stitch it down, then turn it over? Or, is there another way to do this that I've not learned yet.
2. when you attach binding, do you start on the back and fold to the front, or start on the front and fold to the back?
3. What do you do to put the final stitch on. I've seen people finishing them by hand. I'm not wanting to do that, mainly because I think nothing should be sewed by hand. And secondly, because it's a baby quilt and needs to be tough.

okay, thanks in advance for all your help!

[Pudge99]

I don't cut my quilt binding on the bias unless I have to go around curvy things. I cut strips of fabric sew them end to end then press in half. Then I stitch it on the front side fold it over the back. Then press it and stitch in the ditch on the front which most times catches the binding on the back. Occasionally I have to do some touch up sewing where I missed catching it.

[pinecone]

welcome to the dark side. Shelly has some wonderful information on her site. Sip a cuppa and enjoy reading.
http://pir8.freeservers.com/quilting/#Informational%20Pages
http://pir8.freeservers.com/quilting/ending-double-fold-binding/index.htm

piney

[kjh9835]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wprg5vzkuGw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MRfADz_pyg&feature=related

Don't know about pre-packaged binding but I used both of these as a visual and I keep them on my desktop to refer to when I am doing binding.

Also from Laura and my post back in Oct: http://talk.sew-whats-up.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=5584

Once you have quilted it and removed the pins, trim it up square, or straighten your sides, and make your corners 90 degree. Now make your binding by cutting 2 1/4" strips ( if your fabric is 40" wide, you will need 4 strips. Sew the strips together at the ends, making one very long piece. The next step will depend on if you plan on handsewing the binding down at the back or machine sewing the binding down on the top. Press your binding in half lengthwise wrong sides together. Lay your binding on the top of the quilt with the raw edges even with the raw edges of the quilt (this is if you are going to hand sew the binding to the back) Or lay your binding onto the bottom of the quilt with the raw edges even with the raw edges of the quilt (the binding will fold over to the top to be sewn down by machine.
Sew your binding to the quilt using a 3/8" seam. Start about 1/2 to 1/3 of the way down one side, don't start right at the corner. And start about 6-10" down on the binding so you have a tail of binding at the beginning. When you come to the corner, stop about 1/4" away from the edge, backstitch, cut thread. Flip your binding over to the right so the bottom edge is even with the next side of the quilt. Fold it back over onto itself so it is going down the next side of the quilt, folding exactly at the edge of the first sewn side (I'm sure there are you tube videos on doing this mitered corner.) Sew all the way around, and just as you get near the start - 6-10" away, fold the two edges together so they meet, sew them together, trim and finish off your edge. ( this is also probably on a youtube video) I know I have a paper copy of how to do this that I downloaded also, I'll see if I can find it.

Forgot to finish the instructions! Once you have the binding sewn on, press it up and over to the opposite side. Then you can hand stitch or machine stitch it down. you have to fold the corners in to make a mitered corner, pin it then sew it, makes it easier. Or you can use fusible thread in your bobbin when you sew on the binding, you have to zigzag the seam, press it up then turn it over and press the binding down onto the quilt fusing the zigzag stitches to the binding, makes it real easy to sew after.

I have copied and pasted these into Word, printed it off and hung it on my sewing room wall

Kathy

[bridesmom]

Ah shucks, Kathy! I was going to mention that if you are doing a machine sewn down binding, increase your binding strip to a scant 2 1/2" then when you go to sew it down it gives a bit more wiggle room to cover up the previous stitching.

Oh, pictures too Shelley!!