Originally Posted by Jan in VA

The quilting world went through a period in the 70s and early 80s where there was a whole new generation discovering quilting for themselves, not having been exposed to it through mothers or grandmothers. This was the resurgence that became the quilting world we know today.

Many technical skills had been lost or were new to these quilters and they often re-invented things for themselves, including turning the backing to the front as binding. Strip piecing/speed-piecing was also part of this movement as the quilters tired of making templates for squares, rectangles and triangles from cardboard or plastic.

But the binding methods quickly began to upgrade as studies of antique quilts and their construction methods caught on and became a topic of discussion...think of people like Barbara Brackman, Pat Nichols, Hazel Carter, Cuesta Benberry, Gerald Roy, etc.

These historians, appraisers, collectors showed us that most antique quilts -- though not all, by any means --generally had separately applied bindings, usually of two layers of fabric. Most of the instructors of the early resurgence then began to teach this way of binding quilts and it soon became the "accepted" manner and was almost universally required for quilts that were expected to be show judged. Just as the amount of quilting looked for within a quilt has increased over the years on the show floor.

Either method of binding is "correct" simply because it's *your* quilt. Straight-grain binding versus bias-grain binding is also "correct", although bias binding was almost unheard of before the quilts of the 1920-30s with their scalloped edges.

Personally I straight-grain cut my binding strips, join them on the diagonal, miter the corners, finish the binding with a diagonal seam, and generally turn and sew them down by hand with mitered corners.

Jan in VA