Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Should Binding Mitered Corners Be Sewn Closed?

Is summer here or is spring just teasing us?  My little corner of the world is going to be above 90 today.  Now I have to dig out all my cooler clothes.  I sure hope that doesn't lead to cleaning out a whole closet!!!!


Recently, a question was posed to me about binding corners.  The question is this:  

When hand finishing the binding on the back of the quilt should the mitered corners be sewn closed on the front and back of the quilt?  

From a judges standpoint sewing the miters closed on the binding is not something we comment on.  Sewing the corners is a decision to be made by the quilter.  The judge is looking for square, 90 degree corners.

On a personal note, I always sew my miters closed.  The extra stitches help the corner keep it's
"square" 90 degree edge.   After the binding has been applied to the front of the quilt and I am hand sewing it on the back - I come up to the miter - fold it to 90 degrees then stitch the fold closed  from the bottom to the top - put my needle through the top of the miter to go to the front of the quilt - I then sew the front miter closed from top to bottom - put my needle through to the back  of the quilt and continue to apply the binding repeating the this process for each corner.  I take small stitches that do not show when I'm sewing my miters. 

I hope that helps answer the binding corner question.  Remember your binding should be filled with batting and corners 90 degrees.

Until next time I hope your days are filled with smiles and lots of quilting.

Jody

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