binding « For the Love of Felt

Another quilt, another day. My mother purchased this fabric for me months ago, asking me to make a quilt for her. At the time, we just had heard the news of our my coming nephew, and I was all into quilt making! Little did I know it would take me forever to finish it (mainly because my crafting leave-of-absence over the summer.)

I started with the fabric. The map piece was a yard, so I purchased a coordinating yard of fabric for the back. Basting it together with a layer of batting, I purchased a ton of black embroidery floss for the next step: quilting.

I traced each contient. Europe would have killed me if I traced each country. And I will tell you this, the process takes a long time (as hand-sewing does), but I think it is totally worth it.

I did not hide the knots on the back, My initial thought was the quilt would be cute hung on the wall, so hiding the knots wouldn’t matter. By now I wish I took the extra time and did it anyways.

Once I finished quilting, I cut down the border to prepare for the binding. I only wanted an 1/2 inch edge.

For the binding, I cut 2-inch wide strips. See how I finish quilts here.

Wahoo! After 2 weeks of cutting and sewing, my quilt is finally finished!Finishing the quilt was a lot more simple than I first thought it would be. Once quilted, I simply cut off the access fabric around the edges and purchased a 5/8 yard cut of fabric for the binding.

With the fabric I bought, I initially cut 6 strips (for my 60×60 inch square quilt) 3 inches wide. But then I realized I didn’t want the binding to be that thick, so I recut them into 2.5 inch wide strips.

Once cut, I sewed the 6 strips together. Then taking my quilt and putting the right sides together, I sewed the strip to the edges of the quilt (using a 1/2 inch sewing allowance).

For the corners, I found this awesome blog that explains a super easy way to sew them down. (see here)

Next, with the edges sewn in place, flip the fabric over to the back side of the quilt. Use an iron to press the back edge in place (flipping the seam under to create a smooth edge). Then thread a needle and whip stitch the binding in place.