Half-Squares Triangle Quilt (part 3)

To finish the quilt I made for Sarge's dog groomer (recap: I made Curt a small quilt from the scarves he sent Sarge home in after being groomed - see how to make the squares here, and how I arranged the squares here) I cut batting and the backing from solid blue fabric, but each a bit bigger than the front so you have extra wiggle room when piecing them together. I also needed binding long enough to go all around the quilt (the binding is the skinny edge of fabric that connects the front and back).

Fabric usually comes in 43 to 44" widths and you need more than that to go around the quilt - and you want the binding to be one long piece. In order to do that I cut strips of fabric about 3" wide and then sew them together to make one long continuous piece. To sew the strips together lay one strip face up, and another face down with right sides together perpendicular to the bottom strip, sew a diagonal line across the corner (see pictures to see what the heck I'm trying to say hahaha:)

Trim off the corner:

Turn over and you have this (continue adding strips in the same way until you get the length you need to go all around the quilt):

I Googled for how to add the binding to join the front, batting, and back fabrics and then machine stitch over top of the entire thing to keep the fabrics from shifting. I suggest you do the same instead of my trying to describe how to do it - you know how confusing my instructions can be and I didn't take photos of the process haha! 

Here's the finished quilt - I forgot to take pictures before I got to the groomers and was going to give it away, so I snapped a couple on the car seat!

6.3.23: words

6.3.22: 30-day arm challenge

6.3.21: peanut butter cheese ball

6.3.20: MSIH: banana oatmeal cookies

6.3.19: wine cork keychain

6.3.18: beach scene in a box

6.3.17: tequila with citrus fruit

6.3.16: amazing (Legends) race (kid party idea)