If you are a beginning quilter, or even a long-time quilter, I am sure you have been learning some tricks from the quilt masters.  Unfortunately, as a quilter becomes more well known, they seem to quit sharing their tips that brought them where they are today.  I don’t understand this philosophy because most of the tips folks learn as they grow in their quilting is not theirs in the first place – it was shared with them by someone a bit more experienced at whatever time in the quilter’s quest to grow in quilting.  And after they are advertised or promoted as professionals, they write books and want paid for their expertise – much of which came from free tips they’ve learned over the years!

Since I write all the time, ya’ll already know that I freely share the tips that I have learned over the years.  It’s the right thing to do, in my mind!

One of the absolute BEST tips I have received over the years is about binding.  I will admit, though, that I do not always follow this advice but when I do, I just get giddy with anticipation and pat myself on the back a bit.

Once you finish a quilt, you either quilt it yourself or you send it to a quilter.  Next comes the binding.  For some, binding a quilt is a challenge – for others it’s quite easy and not a chore at all.

My tip is to get your binding ready the minute you complete a quilt top.

Sounds simple but it’s not an easy tip to remember…especially if you have made a rather large quilt and you just want it out of your site for a while before you jump back in the quilt ring with it again.  But, if you have your binding ready, it should allow you some breathing room (for the time it takes to quilt the quilt) and you’ll have everything you need to bind the quilt when it’s ready.  It makes a quilt you’re tired of completed quickly…and it makes a quilt you love ready for you to finish it quickly.

I recently made a baby quilt.  When it was complete and sent off to my quilter, I was cleaning off my cutting table.  When I reached the pile of leftover fabric from the baby quilt, I realized I’d better make sure I had enough scraps to bind the quilt.  Thankfully, I had one fabric that was just the right size for the binding so I cut the binding out and decided not to wait to make the binding because I would either forget where I put the fabric or would use that nice piece of fabric for some other project – and then smack myself in the head because I didn’t use the fabric for the binding (has happened many times for this quilter!).

Here are some photos to show the process:

If you are using directional fabric, with due diligence, take the time to make sure that all of the fabric goes in the same direction.  In this photo (above), I am creating my 45 degree angle to make one long strip of binding.

Here’s my binding, all pinned and ready to sew.

Time to sew the strips together!  Then cut off the excess fabric at the quilt junctures.

I now have this long piece of binding cut and ready to bind the quilt, once it gets back from my quilter!

By being patient and taking the time to pre-cut and piece your binding, you save tons of time later on.

Quilt on!