Machine Binding My Donation Improv Baby Quilt from Maria Shell Workshop

Well, Hello September 21st -- Behold, my first quilt finish of 2026!  My last quilt finish was Halo in August of 2023.  Can I even call myself a quilter anymore?  Should I change the blog name to Rebecca Grace Sewcrastinating instead of Rebecca Grace Quilting?  Those are questions for another blog post on another day.  After church yesterday, I mustered up all of my gumption and managed to get this languishing unfinished workshop project completely bound and laundered, ready for donating.  Whew!

What looks like a striped fabric inserted between the coral and lime solids is actually an improvisationally pieced unit from a Zoom workshop I took with Maria Shell in September 2024.  I quilted it in January of 2025 and it's been folded up, shoved in a closet, packed up, moved, and shoved in a new closet in a new home until now.  

Improvisationally Pieced Baby Quilt, 38 7/8 x 41 3/4 After Laundering

Interesting math facts: This quilt top measured 42" x 45" initially, and it measured approximately 41" x 44" after I quilted it with this fairly dense design.  After laundering the quilt, it was down to 38 7/8" x 41 3/8", with a cumulative shrinkage rate of 7.4% in width and 8" in length from quilting and laundering combined.  The batting is Quilters Dream Bamboo and the quilting design is Color B2B by Anne Bright and the quilting thread is YLI 40 Tex Cotton in variegated Rio de Janeiro.  Although the quilt felt stiff and very flat immediately after quilting, it softened right up after washing, developing all of the crinkly, snuggly texture you want in a baby quilt.

Soft, Snuggly and Crinkly After Laundering Despite Heavy Quilting

I mention that because, when I was long arm quilting for hire, I would often have clients who were afraid that moderate to dense quilting designs would render their quilts "stiff as a board," especially with baby quilts, and that is just not the case unless you combine dense quilting with thick, wiry thread and a stiff batting.  We sometimes forget that, in addition to being decorative, quilting stitches perform the very important function of holding the entire quilt together and creating durability over the life of the quilt.  As I've seen in vintage quilt repairs, quilts that are very sparsely quilted or tied fall apart much more rapidly and severely than quilts that are heavily quilted, so I'll err on the side of overquilting a baby quilt rather than risk not quilting it enough to withstand accidents, spills, and hundreds of trips through the laundry machines.

Binding Refresher for Future Rebecca

And now, the important information Future Rebecca will be looking for the next time she wants to bind a quilt.  The following are screen shots from my own older blog posts that I referred to as I could not remember how wide to cut my binding strips, which presser foot to use to sew them on, etc.  Thank God for the Internet, where I can offload all of the important information that gets deleted from my brain to make room for new song lyrics!

So Younger Rebecca told me that I like a cut width of 2" to 2 1/8" for binding strips if I'm going to be hand stitching, or 2 1/4" cut width for machine binding, so I cut scraps of this quilt's backing fabric into 2 1/4" wide strips with my AccuQuilt 2 1/4" Strip die, seamed them together diagonally, and laid them around the perimeter of the quilt to check that seams would not land in my corners.

Laying Out Binding Before Stitching

Um, whoops -- needed to cut and attach one more length of binding!  

Since I'm doing a machine binding, I stitched my binding to the BACK of my quilt first, using my open toe foot #20D for some reason even though I didn't need it for visibility around the needle?  I think it was so I could use my little screw-down seam guide to maintain an even distance.  I could have used the regular #1D dual feed foot.  By the way, lots of tutorials will recommend using a walking foot for this step to ensure all layers feed evenly through the machine, but another advantage of heavy quilting is that it completely prevents shifting layers during the binding process.  

Step 1: Stitch Binding to BACK of Quilt with 20D Foot and Seam Guide

I'm using regular cotton thread, my stitch length is 3.0 (could have used SL 2.50 instead), and my needle is 5 clicks to the right this time with the screw-down seam guide pushed right up to the right toe of my presser foot.  I sewed several inches, then took the quilt out from under the machine so I could wrap the binding around to the front of the quilt and check that I had just enough to cover the stitching line, adjusting my needle position/seam allowance until that was just the way I wanted it.  This is different with every quilt depending on batting thickness and the characteristics of the particular binding fabric I'm using.

Bernina B 990 Machine Settings for Step One

Nearing a corner, I measure the exact seam allowance I've been using to sew on the binding and mark that distance up from the approaching edge of the quilt so I know where to stop, backstitch, and take the quilt out of the machine to fold in the mitered corner.

Measuring and Marking Where to Stop and Backstitch

When I fold in that corner and get ready to stitch the binding to the next side of the quilt, I scootch it back just a smidge from the raw edges on the previously stitched side, as shown below.  This is a trick to help ensure I don't have too much bulk in the corner to create a tidy 90 degree miter:

Scootch Back Slightly from Raw Edges to Reduce Bulk

I stopped stitching the binding on about 10-12" from where I started (I marked the stopping point with chalk before I started stitching) and left 10" tails on both sides.  Then at my cutting table, I smoothed the quilt and binding strips nice and flat and layered the loose binding ends over one another so I could measure and trim them with an overlap of exactly 2 1/4" (this measurement must always equal the cut width of the binding strips).  Then I flipped the loose binding pieces around so they were offset by 1/4" and perpendicular, trimmed off the corner waste leaving a 1/4" seam allowance, and stitched that diagonal joining seam at the machine.  Pressed the seam allowance open, and the binding fit perfectly with no excess.  Easy peasy to stitch that remaining bit down at the machine.  On to Step Two, machine stitching the binding to the right side of the quilt!

Step 2, Machine Stitching to Front of Quilt with Edgestitch Foot 2D

I did take the time to press my binding straight out away from the back of the quilt first, then I folded and pressed the corner miters on the front of the quilt, and then pressed the binding around the edges of the quilt on the sides before stitching, just to make my life easier at the machine since I wasn't planning to do any glue basting or pinning before stitching.  I like using my Edgestitch foot #10D for this to maintain an even distance between my stitching and the folded binding edge.  These were my machine settings:

Bernina B 990 Machine Settings for Step Two

Thread for this step will show on both the front and back of the quilt, so I select bobbin thread that matches the BACKING fabric and needle thread that matches the BINDING fabric.  In this case the binding and backing fabric were the same, so I have the same dull orange thread in my needle and in my bobbin.  Stitch length is 3.0 (have tried a shorter stitch length for this step in the past and did not like how that looked) and this time I am four needle positions to the right to get my stitches close to the folded binding edge without risking any stitches missing the binding completely.  I folded in those corner miters right as I approached them and  used a stiletto tool to hold the fold in place as it moved up under the presser foot.

Here's a shot of the machine stitched binding after laundering the finished quilt.  I'm pleased with how it turned out:

Machine Stitched Binding After Laundering

This photo was taken on Saturday, when I pulled this project out of the closet for binding.  Check out those awful fold creases from being packed away for so long!  Yuck!  Much better after laundering.  The Scrappy Celebrations quilt (beneath today's finish) is next to get its binding put on, either today or tomorrow.  Binding Scrappy Celebrations will be my To-Do for this week, so I can reset my studio for home dec and begin making my custom throw pillows.

One Quilt Bound, The Other Still Waiting

Today is a busy week, with two varicose vein procedures that will require wearing awful compression hosiery for several weeks afterwards (had this done once before 7 or 8 years ago so I know what I'm in for and also know that it will be worth it), and a dentist appointment, and let's see how I feel after they squirt whatever lethal foam into my bulging and twisting leg veins this afternoon...  Hope it doesn't slow me down too much, because my normal pace is slow enough already!

I'm linking up today's post with some of my favorite linky parties:

MONDAY

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs  

TUESDAY

To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt  

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

FRIDAY

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre

Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty

SATURDAY

Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy

SUNDAY

Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework