QUILTsocial Issue 14

Step 2 - Join the strips
Now that all the strips are cut, it’s time to
join them together. You need to join all
the flange strips together to create one
long strip. I like to use a diagonal seam
as that reduces bulk in the binding.
I don’t bother to cut off the selvages
before I join the strips, and you can see
that I’ve overlapped the ends. I have two
reasons for that overlap. When I trim the
seam, the selvages will be trimmed off,
but more importantly, those overlaps
allow me to more easily see where to
stop and start my diagonal seam.
Sewing the strips together with the embroidery
unit still attached to the Designer EPIC
to the machine. I was doing some
embroidery, but I needed to stitch these
seams together. I love the fact that we
don’t have to take off the embroidery unit
to sew. Now if I were sewing something
large, I would remove the embroidery
unit as I don’t want to damage it.
Once you’re done with the flange
strips, repeat the process with the 1¼”
binding strips.
When you’re done, you’ll have two long
skinny strips of fabric – one that’ll become
the flange and the other is the binding.
Step 3 - Sew the flange to the binding
It’s time to sew the two long strips
together. My two strips (I’m using
Northcott Banyan Batiks in my example)
happen to be the same length. I
don’t want the two joins to fall in the
exact same place where they’ll create
unnecessary bulk so I’m going to offset
the end of the strips by about 2”.
Using the 45-degree line on the ruler to draw my
line for the diagonal seam
I’ve covered joining the seams in a
bit more detail in my post, Binding a
Quilt. Let’s just say that I’ve written a lot
about bindings!
Pin the intersection to prevent it from shifting
when you stitch on the drawn line
Trim the excess corners (and selvages) away
leaving ¼” seam allowance
Once the seams are sewn on the
diagonal, trim away the excess leaving
a ¼” seam allowance. You’ll be trimming
the selvages away at the same time.
The seams are pressed open to reduce bulk.
Press the seams open to reduce bulk. I
don’t bother to trim off the dog ears.
Offset the ends of the strips if the joins of the two
strips will be positioned beside each other.
Sew the two long strips together using
an accurate and consistent ¼” seam
allowance.
The joins of the two strips are offset from each
other to prevent unnecessary bulk.
You can see in the photo below that the
seams of the two strips are offset so they
don’t create unnecessary bulk when the
binding is attached to the quilt.
Step 4 - Pressing the binding
Carefully press the seam towards the
binding fabric. It’s best to do this from
I used a ruler to draw a line and I pin
the strips together. If you don’t want to,
you don’t have to. I know lots of people
eyeball this seam as those strips are
only 1½” wide. It’s just that I like to be
consistent so I always do it this way. Call
me ‘set in my ways’!
Then I sewed those diagonal seams
together on the Designer EPIC. Notice
that the embroidery unit is still attached
A long skinny strip of fabric for the flange and a
second long strip for the binding
The seam allowance is pressed towards the
binding fabric.
QUILTsocial | issue 14
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