Satin Blanket Binding Is Evil, and Pineapple Log Cabin Blocks Are Lonely

I think we are all sick and tired of looking at my Amish Baby 54-40 or Fight quilt, which I have been working on v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y due to my temporary (but thoroughly annoying) disabilities.  So let's look at the pineapple log cabin blocks that are waiting patiently for me on my design wall instead:

I'm Coming Back, Pineapple Log Cabin Blocks!

If I knew ahead of time that I was going to have a bike accident that put my right arm in a sling and a splint on my left thumb, I could have planned all of this much better.  I would have finished quilting and binding the Amish Baby quilt PRIOR to injury, and I would have cut out lots of pieces of fabric ahead of time so I could piece them together by machine while I recovered instead of painfully wrestling with quilting and binding a heavy Minky-backed quilt with slippery, sadistic satin blanket binding.  But then again, had I known I was going to fall on the bike that day, I would have stayed home and spent the day quilting instead!

I have had it with this satin blanket binding, in case anyone is wondering.  Oh, it probably looks fine to other people, just like my other satin binding quilts looked fine, but it annoys me that I can't make it look BETTER than fine.  From the front of the quilt, it looks fantastic:

Satin Binding, Front of Quilt

And from the back, it looks great in some places:

Satin Binding, Back of Quilt

...But in other spots I have barely caught the edge of the satin binding in the stitching and I worry that it might come loose after the first or second time it's washed if I leave it that way.  Exasperating!!

Satin Binding from Back, Problem Spots

See what I mean?  I have scoured the web for tutorials in hopes that someone has figured out a more accurate way to sew this premade 2" blanket binding to a quilt, and most of the tutorials picture photos of binding that looks just like mine or even worse.  The best looking ones are where someone is using this satin binding on a much thinner and less bulky project than mine, like two layers of flannel or two layers of fleece.  Mine is a pieced quilt top, 80/20 polyester batting, and then the Minky fleece backing.  No matter what I try, I cannot get the inside edge of the satin binding to align precisely on the front and back side of the quilt so that the zigzag stitching line falls exactly where I want it on the front and back.  So, here's what I'm thinking.  Who says I have to use the single fold prepackaged satin binding in the first place?  If I want a 2" wide finished satin binding on a baby quilt. why can't I just buy yardage of a polyester satin fabric in the color I want, starch the snot out of it to make it behave like a cotton, and then cut and join strips that are 4x the finished width plus extra to wrap around the edge?  Why can't I sew a satin binding to the quilt using exactly the same method I would use to sew a regular cotton binding to a quilt?  I could fold the satin strips in half, serge the raw edges to the raw edges of the quilt from the back, then straight stitch 2" from the raw edge on the back, fold over to the front and pin along the stitching line, and THEN zigzag along the fold line from the front side.  It would be at least as durable a finish as the prepackaged satin binding, and would have the added advantage of giving me more options for finding the perfect color fabric.

Meanwhile, for the current project, I'm planning to stitch a second row of the triple zigzag just inside the first row of stitching.  That way I know the binding is securely attached on both sides, and it will look like I planned it to be two rows of stitching for decorative reasons from the front.  It looks okay on my sample:



Sample with Double Row of Zigzag Stitching

I'm linking up with Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times, Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts,  Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts, WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, and WIPs On Wednesdays at Esther's Quilt Blog.  Happy stitching!