We had a special class  on machine binding a quilt, taught by Lynette from Bernina Stylish Fabrics in Logan, Utah.

Mary Ellen Knutson taught us how to hand sew a quilt binding.

Lynette’s advice is: “Done is better than perfect! And if someone critiques my mistakes, they are not my friend.”

She doesn’t always cut her binding on the bias. Only a handful of the ladies in the room raised their hands when she asked if they cut their binding on the bias.

She loves to use Best Press spray starch for pressing. Press the iron down to press. If you iron your quilt fabric with a back-and-forth motion, it will stretch the fabric.

Lynette uses 2 ½ inch binding.  She uses a walking foot and drops her needle 1 or 2 positions to the left before stitching.  She sews her binding on one side through all layers with a straight stitch and a ¼ inch seam. She then folds it over to sandwich all layers and sews with a serpentine stitch on top through all layers. This is a wavy stitch. She uses clips instead of pinning everything together. She likes using Wonder Clips from Hobby Lobby, or you can buy fabric clips online.

If you go into Bernina Stylish Fabrics and tell them that you are a member of a quilt guild, they will give you 20% off on batting.

She also likes to use friction pens to mark everything. This pen will erase when you iron your project.

Lynette uses leaders and enders: This is a piece of left over scrap fabric to use for the beginning stiches and the ending stitches. This helps so that the fabric doesn’t get stuck in a hole and become tangled up when beginning or ending a project.  She was sewing on a Bernina Active 230 sewing machine with an extra table attached.

Lynette recommends for us to clean and oil our machines after every two bobbins.  She uses a small brush—resembling a very small pastry brush, to clear out all the lint.  She says to only oil the hook on your bobbin casing.  She uses a small oil container with a very long narrow tube to oil.

Another very interesting tool that Lynette was using was called a Galaxy Notions Un-picker. This tool was very interesting to those of us who make regular use of a seam ripper. It resembles a small neck trimming tool used by a barber.