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the fabric will show a particular section of the striped design. When all strips are cut identically, you can use them to create a frame around your quilt.

Strips cut on the bias will create diagonal stripes that spiral around the edge of your quilt.

    Plaid Binding
    Like striped fabric, you can cut plaid binding on the straight of grain to feature a particular segment of the plaid, or you can cut it on the bias so that the entire design will be seen as it wraps diagonally around the edges of your quilt.

    Cutting Scrappy Binding
    Piece together fabrics from your quilt design to make a unique patchwork binding. As you finish your scrappy binding with hand stitches, choose a thread color that blends with a medium color in your binding or matches the back of the quilt. One way to make a scrappy binding is to start with a strip set. The other way is to sew individual strips together end to end. The first method makes smaller individual pieces while the second gives you longer strips of each fabric.
    Strip-Set Method
    You can cut straight-grain or bias strips for the strip-set method.
    Straight-Grain Binding
1. Sew strips of the various fabrics together lengthwise to make a strip set. You can cut all strips the same width or mix and match for a truly random binding. Use a short stitch length, about 15 to 20 stitches per inch, to sew the strips together. The short stitches will hold the little pieces securely when you crosscut the strip sets. Press the seam allowances open to distribute the thickness of the seams along the binding edge.

2. Use a rotary cutter and a ruler to clean-cut the edges of the strip set. Crosscut the strip to make patchwork strips the width of your desired binding. Note: It’s best to cut scrappy binding ¼" wider than usual to allow for the thickness of all the seams around the quilt edge.

3. Sew the strip-set segments together end to end to make enough binding to go around your quilt.
    Bias Binding
    Cutting the strip set on the diagonal will give your scrappy binding a spiral or candy cane effect.
1. Cut strips on the straight of grain and then sew them together in a stair-step fashion. Each time you add a new strip to the strip set, move the end down the width of the cut strip.

2. Place a long rotary-cutting ruler along the diagonal stair-step edge and use a rotary cutter to cut binding strips the desired width. Be sure to align the 45° line on the ruler with one of the seam lines in the strip set so that your binding will be cut on the true bias.

3. Join the strip-set segments end to end to make binding long enough to go around your quilt.

    Individual-Strips Method
    An easy way to incorporate leftovers from your quilt top into binding is to cut individual strips from each of the fabrics you want to use. (Maybe you even have some leftover strips already cut.) Simply sew these strips together end to end, using a diagonal seam as described on page 35 . Unlike the strip-set method, your binding will have longer lengths of each color fabric and fewer seams along the way. This type of binding requires no more effort than typical double-fold binding; you’re just substituting several colors for the typical single-color binding.

    Applying Binding to a Quilt
    Now that you’ve determined what type of binding you want to make, what fabric you want to use, and how to cut the strips and sew them together, you’re ready to attach the binding to your quilt. It pays to prepare the quilt edges neatly before sewing. Then you can follow the steps for applying the binding, mitering the corners, and finishing the binding.
    Note: If you plan to add a hanging sleeve to your quilt, you may want to do so before adding the binding. See “Hanging Sleeves” on page 68 .
    Preparing the Quilt for Binding
    It is very important to baste the quilt edges together before attaching the binding so that the quilt top, batting, and backing can be treated as one unit. Basting stitches also stabilize the edge of the quilt to