Pieced Binding and a Different Corner Treatment

Today, it's all about binding.  Specifically, binding that blends and continues with the piecing of the quilt, like this edge from Random Acts of Blue,

and this one on Ripple Effect.

And on a smaller scale, (because there's not a lot of piecing required), this technique is also on Red on My Wall,

 and Solar Flare.

For me, whether the binding gets this piecing treatment or not really depends on the quilt.  For design-off-the-edge modern quilts, with their use of no borders, I think the quilt benefits from a pieced binding so as not to interrupt the overall design.  But that is only if the quilt design flows off the edge of the quilt, like in Random Acts of Blue.

With that being said, making a pieced border may take more time, but it's easy to do.  Here's how I tackled Random Acts.

I first started with a length of white fabric, 2 3/8" wide, to match the background at the edge, leaving enough to cover the white edge length.  Laying this piece on the quilt edge, a pin was placed in the white binding strip where the blue started.  The piece of blue was sewn in, and the steps repeated to build the strip for that side.

In the above picture, my strip is in the process of being made to match the piecing, with the arrow marking the spot for a blue piece.  All seams were pressed open, to help reduce bulk.

Now, two corners on this quilt used the traditional folded miter of the white binding.  But two corners did not, because the piecing dictated that one edge be white, and the other blue, to match the block. 

And a miter would be a) bulky, and b) look odd because of the little triangle of blue.

How to get the look I want?  Well, first I completely finished the binding on the blue edge.

Then, leaving a 3/8" end on the white strip, 

it was folded back, wrong sides together, with the fold even with the blue edge.

Then the strip was sewn down, all the way to the edge.

The binding was turned and stitched down, by hand.  Now the end looks like this, with a little opening.

Stitching that opening closed, made everything neat and tidy.

Here's the two different corners, mitered and straight.

Hooray!  No interruption in the quilt design, and no funny blue triangle in the corner!

So whenever you're faced with a border-less, design-off-the-edge style quilt, be creative with the binding.  I'm sure your quilt will benefit from it. Go ahead, give it a try!

Happy Quilting!

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