Binding: Love It or Let Me Do It!
So - where do you fall in the binding love/hate game? Are you like me and though you don’t love it you tackle it with zeal because it’s the only thing standing between you and a finished quilt? Do you like the meditative process of slowing down and hand stitching one last step of appreciation and joy into your creation? Maybe you are like my friends Jessica (@blueskycrafter) and Sarah (@sarah_made) and use it as yet another space to add a touch of magic to your quilts.
They are beautiful, aren’t they? The photos have links if you want to check out the tutorials they’ve written for you!
But maybe you are like so many others out there and Just. Don’t. Want. To. Do. It. I hear you, my friend, I hear you. That’s why Trace Creek Quilting is very happy to do it for you! There isn’t anything quite like getting your quilt back and it being completely finished!
TCQ has two options; we can stitch your binding down on the front so it is ready for hand stitching to the back or we can finish it completely by machine. In that case we attach it by machine to the front, then catch it on the back while stitching in the ditch from the front.
I know some folks are hesitant to have someone else do the binding because it feels like cheating, but let me assure you, it’s not. Depending on the season, a quarter to a third of our customers have us help with the binding.
Shoot, you don’t even have to have us quilt it to have us bind it! We’ve worked with several people who have a buildup of binding work and just need a little help getting those quilts finished!
Some of the most common questions about our binding services are about the prep work and size. You are welcome to send us the yardage for the binding or go ahead and make it yourself; there is no difference in price. We’ve found that we can make it pretty fast and super accurate and are happy to include that task in the cost of either level of service.
Should you decide to make it yourself, our strong preference is to work with 2.5” straight cut strips attached on the angle. We’ve worked with a number of special request variations such as 2.25” cut, bias binding, and backing turned to the front. Depending on the situation these may incur additional charges so be sure to check if you are deviating from our general preference as well as make a note on your order form.
(Quick Side Note: 2.25” is a nice width to cut if you are binding by hand. But 2.5” gives us just that little bit of extra we need on the back of the quilt to properly catch it on the back as we stitch in the ditch from the front.)
Overall, though, the two main options are indicated in a box on the order form. Current pricing will be on the order form as well. Simply indicate your preference, include your binding fabric, and then sit back and relax.
Check out the scrappy binding on both of these Heirloom Hearts (pattern by Lo and Behold Stitchery)!
I said a lot of ‘we’ and ‘us’ throughout this post because while I do occasionally complete the binding orders, they are overwhelmingly handled by two of my assistants, Julia and Jeni. Both of them are just magical and I’m not really sure where TCQ would be without them. I used to think I was good and fast at binding (and I AM) but these ladies are nothing short of experts.
If you have any questions or concerns about this service, don’t hesitate to reach out. We always love hearing from you! Now, sit back and relax as I use the rest of this post as an excuse to slip in a whoooooole bunch of gorgeous quilts that just happened to have utilized our binding services!
