Binding Bliss

So far I have machine bound all of the quilts I have made and all but one mug rug.  I liked how the binding turned out on the mug rug where I hand stitched it using the ladder stitch, but I don't have the patience to do quilts that way.  Up until the other day I have always tried to line up the binding front and back so it top stitched on both sides nice and pretty.  I always failed miserably!  It would look nice from the front, but not so great from the back with the stitching only on the binding some of the time.

On this last quilt I made I went with a scrappy binding mostly out of necessity (I didn't have any additional yardage) and most of my scraps were ending up at 2 and 7/8 so I just ran with it, I usually cut my binding a 2 and 1/2.  I also used a larger seam allowance, 3/8 instead of 1/4.  I meant to attach it to the back first and top stitch from the front, but managed to get it completely attached to the front before I even realized my mistake.  Oh well, it is what it is!  When I top stitched it to the back it extended past the stitch line from the front (does any of this make sense?).  I stitched it right on the edge of the binding and on the front it just left a nice straight line that looked like it could have been part of the quilting.  Ideally it would have been on the back, but again, oh well.

Anyway, to sum it up, I have never been happier with the binding on anything that I have done than I am with this one!

I will post photos of the finished quilt tomorrow.  Until then...

Christine