Hey Everyone, welcome back to Technique Tuesday.

On Sunday I finished my September Stitch Along Sunday landscape quilt and used a pieced binding to finish it off. Today as promised here are the directions on how to make this pieced binding.

My landscape piece had layers of fabric to create the landscape and I wanted to carry them over into the binding. To do this a pieced binding has to be made and each side has to be made separately and put onto the quilt one at a time.

The horizontal sides of the quilt are easy and require only one piece of fabric for the binding – the sky on top and the grass on the bottom. I did cut each piece a couple of inches longer than needed as extra is needed to fold under to the back and finish the edge.

Note: the width of my binding is 2 ¼″.

The sides are a bit more time consuming and fiddly but well worth the time spent for the final result. First of all measure each coloured section at the edge of the quilt. The bottom green grass section was 4 inches so I cut he piece  4 ½″ in length. I did this for each section on each side of the quilt making sure to add on a ½″ to each piece for the seam allowance.

Lay out pieces along the side so they are in the correct position.

Pieces along side the quilt in order

Sew pieces together. Normally I sew my binding pieces together on the bias but with this type of binding it is easier to sew them together square on so everything matches up when attached to the quilt.

Binding pieces sewn together

Press the seams open to reduce bulk.

Press seams open

Press the binding in half.

Binding pressed in half

Place on the top of the quilt making sure everything is lined up and sew with a ¼″ seam to the front of the quilt. (Click on image for larger view.)

Binding sewn in place with all sections matched up

Press and fold over to the back of the quilt and trim off any overhanging fabric.

Both vertical binding strips sewn on and ready to be sewn to back

The edges of the binding are flush with the top and bottom of the quilt. Hand stitch in place.

Vertical binding hand sewn to back

Attach the top and bottom binding strips the same as above. There will approximately an inch hanging over each end.

Horizontal binding strips attached

Press and fold over to the back.

Press and fold over to back

Trim off the overhang to a ½″.

Trim off excess fabric to ½″

Fold under the binding and mitre the top corner on the back of the quilt. This will allow it to sit nicely under the binding and make a square corner on the front. You may wish to pin these corners in place. Repeat for the other 3 corners.

Fold corner over and pin in place

Using the little red Wonder Clips secure the binding and hand sew in place.

Clip binding in place and hand sew to back

Notice that the corners on this type of binding are square to the quilt on the front creating a different look.

Binding complete

I love the look of the pieced binding and how it just finishes off this little art quilt.

Happy Quilting!