Pinterest Inspired - Quilt Binding Tutorial

Last year, I created a board for all of the things I'd tried from a pin and succeeded at.  I've decided to start doing posts on these and then pinning my posts to the Pinned It, Made It, Loved It board. 

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I'm really bad about putting off learning something new because it seems too intimidating.  After putting it off, for sometimes years, I'll finally do it and have a major "DUH" moment when I realize that it wasn't nearly as complicated as I'd expected.

This most recently happened with quilt binding.

Back in 2007, I began quilting.  Nothing fancy, just some really primitive beginner stuff.  After all of the work I put into my quilts, I would finish them pillowcase style because I was afraid to try binding.  Now, there's nothing wrong with finishing that way, it just looks so much better when they're finished by binding.

One day back in Jan, I decided to look for a binding tutorial.  I came across a really great one, which I promptly pinned and then tried.

It's from Diary of a Quilter and it's a great tutorial on how to do binding with half machine stitching and half hand stitching.  She even teaches you how to make your own binding!  She's also got a tutorial for binding completely by machine, but I haven't tried that one. YET.

Just like everyone else, I hate to waste my time, so I made a couple of pot holders to try this out on.  It worked perfectly! 

Since finishing the pot holders (I plan to make many, many more of those), I've quilted and bound a small floor blanket for Zoe and a small quilt for her.  

If you've been afraid to try binding, I want you to just stop it and get on with it already.  You'll feel like a big old dorkus for not trying it earlier.