I decided I wanted to bind this quilt with the black stripe fabric that I used in the outside border and add a colored piping just to the inside of that binding to add some spark. Tried out several colors in the quilt for this piping and settled on the gold fabric I used in the narrow inside border. Of course I didn’t have enough of that gold fabric left but luckily my friend Janet had some left on a bolt in her shop Quilter’s Delight in Holdrege, NE and mailed it to me right away.Before I could bind it I needed to block it. The edges were so, so rippled after I finished quilting it but after the blocking they were so nice and flat. I soaked the quilt in the bathtub in cool water with some Quilt Wash soap to remove the starch that I used on the back of all the fabrics then squeezed the water out with my hands and rinsed several times in cool water. I treated it very gently since the edges were not finished and sure didn’t want the batting to tear away. After the rinses I gently squeezed as much water out that I could then rolled it in towels several times to remove more water then laid it out on several layers of bed sheets in the middle of my living room floor and measured it and patted it out to be as square as possible. After it was dry I trimmed it up square, easy now that the borders were nice and flat.
For the cording on the inside of the piping I had two sizes on hand here at home. This is drapery cording in two different sizes. I made a sample using both of the cords and decided to use the larger cord. The smaller cording would have worked but wanted a bolder accent that the larger one would add.
I used a Bernina 31 foot, which is a pintuck foot, to stitch the cording and it worked great. I cut the fabric strip wider than I needed and did cut it on the straight of grain which worked but think I would cut my strips on the bias the next time as it did want to stretch on the diagonal somewhat when I stitched it. I wanted the subtle stripe to end up going straight across the piping instead of on an angle which would have happened if I used bias strips.
Several years ago I purchased this acrylic tool to trim 3 sizes of cording. The first photo shows the end of the tool – wanted you to see the grooves. The cording sits in the grooves and then the excess is trimmed off. Each size of cording can be trimmed for 1/4” seam or 1/2” seam so it is very versatile. It is only about 8” long but slides along on the cord very easily to cut. Just after I bought it I thought to myself that this was probably not a wise decision and it might sit un-used in a box for years but I have used it and it makes trimming an even seam allowance so easy. A regular ruler rocks back and forth on the cording and just doesn’t work well at all.
I use Elmer’s School Glue instead of pins to attach the piping to the quilt before I stitch it. I use a tiny line of the glue, lay the binding down with the seam edges even with the outside edge of the quilt. The last step is to press with a dry iron to set the glue. It holds everything exactly where I want it.
I used Susan Cleveland’s method she calls “Piping Hot Binding” to put the piping on my quilt. She has two excellent YouTube videos showing how she stitches the piping onto her quilts so check them out if you are interested. “Piping Hot Binding part 1” and “Piping Hot Binding part 2
I found Susan’s method so much easier than trying to miter the piping as I had done in the past. I always felt it added so much bulk to the corners but didn’t know any other method. With Susan’s method you pull about 1/4” of the cording out and trim it off so the bulk of the cord starts right at the point where it should and none is left in the seam allowance.
Until later,
Lynn
