Choosing Fabric & Binding The Edges on the Quilt

When it came to decide what fabric to use for the binding around the edges, I was a bit ambivalent. The quilt I think of as fundamentally natural linen based, and I was deciding whether to go for the same linen around, or something navy, or something dark red. So bold or mellow accents... After going back and forth, and looking at it against the cream colored backing, I decided after all to go with the linen to keep the theme going, to not give the binding too much focus.

After doing a bit of research (how did anyone ever get anything done before the web?) I got to working on cutting and sewing together the binding. It seems like most people cut their strips 2 - 2 1/2 inches wide. After playing around though I decided to go for 3 1/2 inches; I liked the look of the slightly thicker edges here. I think since the quilt is pretty large scaled already with 10 inch blocks, it makes sense proportionally to have slightly thicker binding as well.

Here I'm sewing together strips, meeting two strips at 90 degrees and sewing a line on the bias.

When I first studied up on this it seemed a bit confusing, but after doing it a few times it makes a lot of sense and couldn't be easier.

It really does connect the two strips nicely.

Before starting on this quilt, I didn't quite realize that the binding doesn't show any stiches, I guess I never really paid attention to that previously. But after seeing how other people put on their binding it makes so much sense. To iron the strip in the middle, and then lay it flat on the edge of the quilt and sew a straight line, just to later turn the whole striop over and attach it by hand on the other side, hadn't crossed my mind in smaller projects I done previously. But what a neat and simple technique!

It comes out so nicely. It's so simple, it looks so clean. I'm so happy I actually went for the linen as opposed to a contrasting color. It gives the quilt much more of a rustic look.

This whole sewing by hand process definitely requires me to take my sweet time. It's relaxing though, I do it at night now as we watch shows and I should be done shortly.

Getting close to the end now... not much left to go.