MrsBoats

I've only got a bit of SID to go before I'm done quilting my first quilt. (YAY!!) Now for my newbie question: Is there supposed to be batting in the binding itself, or just fabric?

Oh, and you're supposed to bury the ends of the quilting threads *in* the quilt, right? 'Cause I'm either going to have to do a whooole lot of snipping, or a whole lot of burying ends.

ArtsyOne

Questions: Are you hand quilting and hand-sewing the binding? Are you using low-loft or high-loft batting? If you're using high-loft, then I would definitely use some small embroidery scissors to remove the batting from between the front and back layers in the seam allowance. If you're machine sewing and using low-loft, then you can just leave the batting in there.

GemState

Leave enough batting so your binding is 'filled'. It looks nice and there is less wear.

117becca

burying threads.....So, the knots are on the outside on the backside? I put a small knot and pull it into the middle of the quilt

Favorite Fabrics

You don't want the binding to look empty. Even if you are using high-loft binding, you could cut away half the volume (it usually separates somewhat into layers anyway) so that the bound edges don't look "less luxurious" than the rest of the quilt.

dunster

The batting from the quilt extends into the binding. I don't understand the comments about removing or clipping away batting.

Tartan

Congratulations on finishing your first quilt! Since it's SITD I am assuming you machine quilted it? The 3 layers of the quilt should be in the binding. I square the edges of my quilt sandwich before adding the binding by machine to the top of the quilt and hand stitch on the back. Sometimes I want to do machine binding and then I use Charismah's tutorial on QB that is titled, "quick machine binding with flange."Some quilters like to draw a line instead on thir quilt edge and attach the binding along the drawn line and then trim.
I bought the easy thread needles from Walmart for burying my thread in the quilt sandwich. I tie a knot with the 2 thread ends and pop the threads into the top of the needle and brry the ends into the quilt batt in the center of the sandwich and trim off the extra thread.

jcrow

Usually I cut my quilt at the end of my quilt. Then the binding goes around the end of my quilt to cover the raw edge.

Tashana

When I SITD wherever possible (on edges of the quilt) I lock my stitches and then snip the threads. On my machine that means a few stitches forward followed by a few stitches backward. If you did not do this and you have thread tails everywhere you could do what I did with my first quilt. Working on the back and back only tug on the thread gently and pull its mate (the top thread) to the back. Tie a double knot and snip the threads so you have small tails left, less than 1/4". These knots will be on the back and nobody will know they are there. Good luck and keep on quilting!

MrsBoats

Whoo. I babysat today--a last-minute arrangement with a former coworker--and I'd completely forgotten how time-intensive babies are. I'm whipped, and I got nothing done today, on my quilt or anything else!

Thanks for all the advice. I'm machine quilting; not doing fantastic, but clearly doing better than when I started. (It helped that I switched machines.) For burying the tails, I've got tons of threads where I started and stopped, and thought I remembered they weren't supposed to be cut.

For the binding, I think I'm understanding you all correctly. The batting in the quilt should go all the way to the edge, with the binding over it, and the binding is just fabric, no 'extra' batting in it, right?