Sweet Baby Girl Quilt…machine binding tips!

I just finished this sweet little baby quilt.

This was a custom order for a friend who is attending a baby shower this weekend. The nursery is pink and brown so I made the quilt to coordinate. It’s an alphabet and ballerina theme with pink and brown and cream and aqua...very little girl! I used a layer of Warm and Natural quilt batting, backed it in a snuggly soft pink and brown flannel, and bound it (on the machine…such a cheater…see tips below!) in a coordinating pink and cream polka dot. I just love polka dot binding!  

 

 

 

I used a Super-Sized 9 Patch pattern which is GREAT because it actually makes 3 quilts! So yes, I have enough fabric left to make two more quilts. Just let me know if you would like one and I will get you on my custom order list!

Now for those machine binding tips…

• For making and attaching binding to the quilt…I use this AWESOME tutorial at Crazy Mom Quilts
• Don’t get me wrong…I do enjoy binding a quilt by hand, but because I needed to get this quilt done rather quickly, I didn’t have the time to spend 3-4 hours binding. I had seen this tutorial at Red Pepper Quilts that details how to tack down the binding on the machine instead of by hand. Great tutorial and great comments in her comment section that definitely helped along the way. Since this was my first time, it’s not as perfect as I would have liked, but here are the things I learned…
• IRON!!! Once the binding is attached, you will be working with one side at a time sewing corner to corner. Press the binding out with lots of steam, then press it to the back with lots of steam. Make sure when you are pressing it to the back, you are covering the stitch line where you sewed the binding to the front of the quilt.
• Pin well!!! I saw in the comment section that someone said to use small binder clips instead of pins…GENIOUS! I did that and it worked well, however I didn’t iron super well on my first edge which meant it didn’t get binder clipped as well as it could have which meant I had a few little “holes” that I had to touch up by hand. I ironed and binder clipped very evenly on the other three sides and it turned out much better. So much better in fact that the next time I used this method of quilt binding, I will make my strips 2.25 instead of 2.5 because there was a bit of excess once it was sewn down. 

• Finally, you are just stitching in the ditch on the front of the quilt sewing corner to corner backstitching at the start and stop to really tack down the corners. Repeat on all four sides…so easy and SO much faster than doing it by hand.

Hope you all are having a blessed day! -E