Binding

When I left Australia I had sandwiched my quilt and had begun to quilt the middle section over the blocks. When my sewing machine finally arrive here in the UK I finished off the quilting. The last little bit to do was the binding. However, I felt that finding out how to bind the quilt was a bit of a pain so here's a few things I learned:

1. Deciding on the width of your binding can be deceiving. If you want something that's a little less than an inch (see photo) cut 3 inch strips.

2. If you have finished quilting your quilt and still have a bunch of wadding and backing hanging around the outside don't cut it off! Wait until you attach the binding and then cut it off just under a 1/4 of an inch.

3. Cut your binding down the longest side of your material. To know how many strips to cut measure the middle section of your quilt both ways (say, 45" x 60") then add these numbers together (105"). Double it (210") then divide by 40 (5.25) and round up to the nearest whole number (6). This is how many strips you should cut.

4. Join your strips using diagonal seams (bias stitching, apparently). When making the diagonal seams you'll be putting one strip under another, good sides facing each other, at 90 degree angles. To make the seams all go the same way just make sure that if the strip was the one on the bottom for one end then it should be the one on the top for the next end.

5. Then use Step 1 of this fantastic guide to start you off.

6. Then use this to do your corners.

7. Then back to this to finish off.

8. Bliding stitching the binding to the back of the quilt is mighty easy with a cup of chai, banana bread and 6 hours of Pride and Prejudice.