There are a lot of tips and tricks out there for just about every sewing and quilting situation, so here’s my entry in the “how-to-finish-a-quilt-binding” category. This tutorial assumes you know how to create the binding and have sewn it onto the quilt top. You’re ready to finish the ends of the binding.

This works with any size binding, since you use a scrap of your binding as a measurement. Leave a 10-12″ tail before you start sewing on the binding; stop sewing the binding to the quilt about 10-12″ before the end. This 10-12″ gap will leave you with enough room to join the binding and finish sewing it to the quilt.

Step 1: Cut a small piece of your binding and place it on the quilt about halfway between the 10-12″ gap mentioned above.

Step 2: lay the tail from the beginning of the binding across the scrap and place a pin (as a marker) in the binding on the left-hand side of the scrap as shown below:

Step 3: lay the tail from the end of the binding across the scrap and place a pin (as a marker) in the binding on the right-hand side of the scrap as shown below:

Step 4: (this is the only tricky part, but you’ll get it once you see it!) With right sides together, lay the left-hand side of the binding over the right-hand side of the binding, laying the marker pins perpendicular to each other.

Step 5:  Pin and stitch the two strips together across the diagonal.

Step 6: Trim the seam to 1/4″

Step 7: Press seam, then pin binding and stitch to edge of quilt. Finished!

And that’s really all there is to it. This method works for any size binding, because you use a piece of the binding to measure the distance needed. This is only one method, and there are many ways to finish a quilt. But I’ve been using this method for years and it always turns out perfectly.