Adventures in Unusual Binding!

For the first time in a very long time, I have a finished quilt to share! It’s very exciting (for me)! Regular readers may remember my version of Deliciously Mod by Susan Guzman from our I Love This Quilt feature in the January/February 2024 issue of McCall’s Quilting. I’d gotten it quilted with the jagged edges intact and intended to use the irregular shape as a design feature in some way, and using bias binding for a shaped binding. Read on to see how I accomplished this unusual binding.

Then I recently wrote about how an unexpected tool from Olfa helped me get started on the project, by being the perfect helper for marking the edges of my quilt to prepare for the curved binding. I did a pretty drastic curve because I like a fabric-related challenge, also I wanted to keep as much of the fabric as possible and didn’t want to have to trim much off. I planned to use my standard binding technique, just adapted for the shaped edge and bias binding.

Read my review and more info about this great tool from Olfa here.

Creating the Unusual Binding

Once the curves were marked all around the edge, I cut bias strips from leftover fabrics. I decided to roughly follow the value placement around the edge so it’s a very scrappy binding. I really had to estimate approximately how the values would shift around the edge and hope my binding matched well enough.

I was too nervous to trim the curved edges before binding so I didn’t; I just used my marked lines for a seam allowance guide. I didn’t use a walking foot for sewing the binding to the quilt as I wanted a bit more control over the bias manipulation and easing the binding across the convex and concave curves; the consistent pressure of my ¼” foot was ideal for that. A stiletto was really helpful for easing the binding in and making sure no wrinkles passed under the foot. The convex curves were not that hard, but the concave curves were more challenging to maneuver. It took a long time, stitching slowly and carefully the whole way.

Joining the ends of the binding was pretty tricky though. It was hard to determine the length for joining since so much easing is required around the curves. Next time I’ll plan the join on a convex curve; the concave curves are already challenging, then to add the join in the middle of it was a bit shortsighted. But my purpose is to try out and share research and development for odd techniques, and I make the rookie mistakes so you don’t have to!

Now that the binding is attached all around the curvy edge, I could trim the seam allowance and stitch the fold down; by machine of course! I did use a walking foot for this step, along with my trusty Clover clips. It was slow going but quicker than the first binding pass. Like I do with straight binding, I made sure I could feel the fold of the binding with my fingers through the quilt to ensure the fold gets caught in the stitches. I learned quickly that spreading the ease of the bias binding all across the concave curve was important so that I didn’t get too many folds in those areas.

I guess that’s why most people do a gentler curve on shaped bindings, so that it’s not so tricky to ease the binding across the curves. I’d recommend that approach over the drastic curves I went with, just to make it less frustrating to complete. Or they’ll choose a scallop shape with a distinct pivot point that can accommodate a little tidy fabric fold in the corners; that’s one technique I haven’t tried yet.

But I’m really happy with how this unusual binding turned out, despite the minor difficulties! I kind of want to start using this one right away to see how the curves hold up after regular use and washing; I’m curious how the sparkly fabric from Maywood wears over time, too! I hope you give shaped bindings a try sometime, it really adds a fun touch to a quilt.

Happy quilting!