Sometime this month I am expecting the arrival of grandbaby #4! During the Thanksgiving holiday weekend we had a baby shower for my daughter – lots of clothes & story books, but not a single receiving blanket! So while I’ve been finishing up her wedding quilt and starting the baby’s quilt — I’ve made some over-sized receiving blankets out of cotton jersey knit. Joann’s had some adorable prints – 58″ wide. I bought 1-1/4 yds of four different prints – ample.
First decide your size – I chose 42-inch square for my size. I then folded it fourths to round the corners. Use a can or lid as a pattern.
Use a can or lid to make a square corner round.
Next cut your strips for the binding – cotton jersey knit has more stretch crosswise – cut length wise instead for a more stable edge. 1-3/4 inch width worked out nicely. 
Time to join the pieces – on the bias spreads out the bulk.
Binding pieces joined on the bias.
Next you’re going to sew the binding and blanket square together – wrong side of blanket to right side of binding. Start with a tail about 6-8 inches long. Round corners can be a bit tricky but look great when your finished – you’ll need to stretch the blanket a bit at the corner while not stretching the binding.
Stretch the blanket corner while attaching the binding. Once you get around the corner - STOP stretching.
Joining the binding when you come back around is a breeze! Really! You can get a little measuring square to help you out
Binding tool - not necessary.
but I’m going to tell you how without the tool! Stop stitching about 6-8 inches before you get to the start – hopefully you have two tails that overlap.
Leave a space for joining the ends.
Take ONE tail and cut it straight across about mid way in the space left. Now take a ruler and put it flush with the cut end, overlap the uncut tail over that and then make a cut at the same measurement as the width of your binding – in my case 1-3/4 inches from the end of the ruler.
Using a ruler to connect your binding ends.
Now to connect the two ends
Square up the ends at a right angle and sew across the bias.
Trim off the excess, press open and it should lay nice and flat for you to finish attaching to the blanket.
Nice fit - ready to finish up.
Pressing the edges - watch your fingers! ouch!
Time to press – press the seam toward the binding and on the raw edge of the binding fold & press a 1/4 inch allowance.
Using a stitch in the ditch foot & needle moved a few notches to the right.
Time to sew again! I have found using my stitch in the ditch foot, adjusting the needle location over 3 or 4 notches to the right, gets me set up for a very nice top-stitched edge.
A bit blurry - you'll need to stretch it a bit to keep the binding square to itself.
Once again on the corners you’ll need to do a bit of stretch of the blanket – try to keep the binding square to the binding so you’ll need to stretch the blanket enough to do that.
Done! Note one on the right I did with the binding cut on the crosswise – you can see a bit of wave to the blanket edges versus the one on the left lying nice and flat.
Suggestions for next month’s topic? I’m thinking about focusing on applique – #4 grandbaby’s quilt has 16 squares of applique that I’ll be focused on for the next couple of weeks!
Hummingbird Hollow Creations 