Quilting this took me way longer that it should have! Being less familiar/confident with machine quilting and school starting definitely slowed me down. Despite the fact I would rather have hand quilted it, the stitching looks amazing and the pattern is beautiful. Time to trim the edges and set the binding in order. Over the years I read several books and blogs with tips and trends for determining binding length; taking bits and pieces here and there to make my own way.
First let me say I generally use the continuous bias binding method; two inch cut. After piecing the fabric strips together the continuous binding strip is folded in half and pressed. Raw edges are sewn to the front edge of the quilt with mitered corners and a hidden overlap at the ends. The binding is now turned to the back and hand stitched in place. To find how much is needed a little math comes into play.
* add the measurements of all four sides of the quilt
* to that # add 15" for joining seams and finishing edges
this # gives the length of binding needed for the quilt
* to this # multiply the width of your binding (mine is 3")
* find the square root of that # and you have the yardage needed
Like I said, I have no idea where this formula came from but it works wonders! Also http://www.generations-quilt-patterns.com/bias-binding.html has excellent charts for yardage yields for bias cut bindings. I keep a copy in my binder for shopping trips; this makes remnant bin opportunities mindful purchases:)
Now, I'm off to finish the bias binding on the spring picnic quilt because so many other projects are calling my name!!!
