We have often, and lately, talked about binding. I hope it isn't being presumptuous to tell you about something I have just done (I haven't seen it discussed here before - and I haven't done it before!). I have been helped so often by links, and answers including tips, from folk on the group, so I hope this might be of interest to someone.
I am just finishing my scrappy Chinese Coins quilt. I cut four pieces from the length of the ombre sashing fabric, so two black and two very pale grey pieces. So, I knew that four together would be long enough to go round the not quite square quilt (I mean the corners were squared, but it was a little bit of a rectangle!). I thought how nice it would be if I could set the binding so that it was set symmetrically around the corners, though with different colours, but sighed and thought 'oh well', just have to do the best as it turns out!
However, I woke in the middle of the night, earlier this week, and thought of a solution. In the morning I wracked my brains to remember it >gg< (as you do). I did, and this is it.
I unpicked the joins of the long piece and then proceeded with the four separate pieces.
1 I clearly marked the centre of each side of the quilt 2 Placed the first piece (black) so that it overlapped this mark by about an inch. 3 Pinned it up to *its* corner. 4 Started sewing it down, about 2-3" from the centre mark. 5 Sewed up and around the mitred corner as usual. 6 Stopped sewing about 2-3" before the next marked centre.Then I worked with all the pieces, alternating colours.
When all were sewn down, I folded each piece, and finger pressed a sharp crease exactly on the marked centre. Then I pulled the binding strip away from the quilt, (this is what the unsewn couple of inches allow), pinned - matching the creases of both ends, and sewed those ends together. Having done that four times, my binding was set just exactly the way I wanted it.