You’ve made your quilt. You’ve quilted your quilt. Now, you have one final step – binding! Since quilting binds us together I thought I’d bundle up my 5 BEST binding tips for you. 

1) Use a Binding Chart

Grabbing a calculator to make sure you have enough strips to make the right amount of binding is hard. Get your free downloadable binding chart you can print out. I like to keep mine under my cutting mat so I know right where to find it when it is time. This makes it so EASY

2) Trim the Secret Triangles in Your Binding Corners

After attaching your binding to the front of the quilt there is a secret little triangle to snip away in each of your quilts corners that will help your binding turn to the back square, flat and beautiful. Take a close look at step 5 in this tutorial to see EXACTLY where to find the secret triangle hiding in your corners. This is what needs to be snipped- not the entire corner. Did you know there was a secret triangle?  

3) The Best way to Join the Ends of Your Binding

This video tutorial by one of my quilt heroes, Dawn Cavanaugh, shows a foolproof way of attaching the beginning and end of your binding together so there is NO BULK! 

4) Prep for Binding by Squaring Up Your Quilt

For years I was terrified of squaring up a quilt after I’d finished quilting it but it makes a HUGE difference. It isn’t that hard and squaring the quilt makes it so much easier to pop those corners square and flat. Here’s a great tutorial on how to square up your quilt to prep it for binding.

5) Pre-Made 100% Cotton Binding by Moda!

Recently a new product was introduced that made me squeal. For years premade binding was of poor quality and was predominately polyester fabric. Then, Moda started making binding from their 100% quilt shop quality cotton and it is FABULOUS! Talk about a time saver. If you don’t like making your own binding be sure to try this. We have all the colors they make!

Whether you prefer to bind your quilts by hand or machine, these binding tips should jumpstart your next quilt finish! Do you have a binding secret you want to share with the world? Join us in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook and let us know! We’d love to see what you’re working on.

Happy Quilting!