I am making a crib quilt for DD's first child. The pattern has a ruffle around the outside of the quilt instead of a binding. The directions say to sew the ruffle to the quilt top before quilting and then "birth" the quilt. I don't like the idea of birthing before quilting because I'm afraid I'd end up with puckers and not be happy with the end result.
I'm looking for alternative ways to do the ruffle. One way I'm thinking would work would be to attach the ruffle to the top only, quilt as usual (though not quite to the outer edge), trim the batting to the seam edge, trim the backing, leaving a seam allowance, turn the raw edge of the backing to the inside and stitch it down along the seam where the ruffle was sewn.
The other way I think would work is to quilt first and then baste the ruffle to the top side, stitching through all the layers. Cut a binding strip (1-1/2" wide or so), fold it in half, lay it over the ruffle and stitch it to all the layers. Fold the binding and the ruffle away from the front, and stitch the binding down to the back. The binding would not wrap around the edge, but would simply cover the seam where the ruffle was attached. This would result in a pretty thick edge and I'm not sure that is desirable.
Any comments or other ideas out there?
Julia in MN