Friday, June 28, 2013

Log Pyramid Quilt Along: Binding


Here we go!

The binding on this quilt is a little different from your average binding for two reasons:
  1. It's one inch wide and I don't want you to have to do the math on how to make inch wide binding if you don't want to.
  2. The edges of the quilt are trimmed differently to avoid covering up chunks of your pyramids with binding.
First you need to cut your binding.  The strips should be 6.25" wide by the width of your fabric.  Not sure how to calculate how many strips you need?  Figure out the perimeter of your quilt by adding the width to the height and multiplying that number by two.  Add twelve (to give yourself some wiggle room) and then divide by 40.  You'll probably get a decimal so round your answer up to the next whole number.  That is the number of strips you need.

*I use 40" as my width of fabric even though quilting fabric is usually 42" to 44" wide.  By using 40, I don't have to measure the fabric I'm using because I know I'll have enough, maybe a little extra.  It also means I don't have to worry about taking selvages into account.*

Cut your strips, sew them together end to end, right sides facing and press your seams open.  Press the entire length of binding in half, wrong sides together as in the photo below.


Now you need to trim your quilt edges.  On the top and bottom edges do not trim at the edge of the quilt top.  This is very very important.  If you do, the tips of your pyramids will all be lopped off and you will be sad.  Instead, trim 3/4" from the edge of the quilt top.

Trimming the top edge of the quilt.

For the left and right sides of the quilt you can trim like normal, along the edges of the quilt top.  This is because we took the extra wide binding into account when we made our side blocks.  They've got and extra 3/4" of padding that can be covered up without deforming any pyramids.

Trimming the right side of the quilt.
 And now, to sew the binding on.  You will sew with a 1" seam.  I pulled out the handy screw on seam guide that came with my machine to keep my seams nice and straight.


Apply your binding just like you normally would and hand stitch it to the back.


And there you have it!  A lovely extra wide binding on your lovely finished quilt!

Since I don't want to bury the lede, I will be back on Monday with a whole mess of beauty shots of my finished quilt.

1 comment:

  1. I haven't been able to sew along, but I do plan on using the tutorials and posting to Flickr when I'm done! Thanks for all your hard work on this!

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