tricks up my sleeve

In the short time that I've been quilting (and more importantly, reading quilting blogs), I have learned a few tricks that have help make the binding process easy. So easy, in fact, that tonight I realized that this just may be my favorite part of making a quilt!

Trick #1

(are you tired of looking at this stupid quilt yet? I sure am!)

Serge the quilt sandwich before binding- genius!

I can't rember where I read this first (Cluck Cluck Sew, maybe?) but it's so smart!

I have a tendency to leave much more than the recommended 2-3" of batting and backing on while I'm quilting a sandwich and it was always sort of a pain to lay it out and trim all that when I was done quilting (oh, and it made me nervous that I was somehow going to cut my quilt in half. No really, I'm a spaz like that.).

Serging the edges kills two birds with one stone- it cuts off all the excess batting/backing AND holds the edges together so neatly for you to sew your binding on!

See? The 6.5% of myself that is a perfectionist loves that.

I almost don't want to bind it.

Almost.

Trick #2:

(source: Know What I Love?)

The second trick I got from Know What I Love? who said she got the idea from The Sometimes Crafter (I couldn't find her mention of it though!). When I iron the binding in half, I roll it up as I go. When I'm finished and the binding is ready to go, I slip a measuring tape (oh so stylish!) through the center and there you have it- a way to keep your binding on hand without it all strewn about!

Tomorrow night will be a rarity: Joe and I have NOTHING planned (the only night from December 5th until December 22nd where that is the case!), so we're going to make fish and chips, turn on the fire and watch a movie while I bind my quilt! Fun!