How NOT to Machine Stitch Binding & a BIG Announcement!

I’m going to start with the BIG announcement because I just can’t hold it in any more.  Hannah, my 15 year old daughter, has her first pattern featured on Free Quilt Patterns!

I’m so proud of her!  I almost forgot…she’s the youngest designer they have ever featured!  Woohoo!!  Please check it out and click ‘like’ if you like her design.

Moving on to other matters…I’m going to show you how I finished my son’s dinosaur quilt by machine stitching the binding.  I learned the hard way what NOT to do.  Just a brief background.  When I designed this quilt I used 1″ sashing and corner stones.  That was my first mistake.  They sure do look cute but what a pain in the neck!  I had to rip out several stitches because when I was piecing it, I doubled up many of those pesky 1″ sashings.  Ugh…this quilt has been a little cursed from the beginning!

Here’s a picture of the quilt

My hubby and Hannah drew the dinos for the applique.  Aren’t they super talented? 
I didn’t want the binding to overlap the tiny sashing too much so I decided to use a larger than normal seam allowance when I attached it to the back of the quilt.  Mistake number 2!  I barely had enough binding to wrap around to the front and stitch down.  Not to mention it barley covered the stitch line.  And, the corners were near impossible to miter.  But, I was not about to rip off all the binding. {I’m too lazy!}  So I made it work.  I used a gazillion pins and stabbed myself a million times.  Good thing I didn’t draw blood since I was working with white binding!  
You can see that I had to use tons of pins, especially at the corners.  It was even tricky getting the pins stuck in the binding.  That’s why they’re all at an angle.   
Once I had all the pins I own in this quilt, it was time to stitch it down.  

I backstitched when I started.  I worked my way around until I got to the first corner.  I stitched up to the mitered corner and then left the needle down and raised the foot so I could pivot the quilt.  
I was almost to the point of pivoting the quilt.
I left my needle down and it’s time to pivot. 

Then I started down the next side.  I kept going until I was finished!  And was I ever glad to be finished!

The best part about this whole mess was when my son woke up this morning and saw his finished quilt laying on the living room floor.  He was so excited to try it out! 
In the past, I have always used a 1/4″ seam allowance when attaching the binding.  In the future, I will ALWAYS use a 1/4″ seam allowance when attaching the binding!      
Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to check out Hannah’s quilt! 
Vicki

5 thoughts on “How NOT to Machine Stitch Binding & a BIG Announcement!”

  1. I get the weekly free quilt e-amil and had already seen that quilt this morning! You should be vrey proud of her! I love it and thought about weather or not I wanted to do one for myself!! YAY HANNAH!!

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