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I may not have enough fabric leftover to finish the binding of one of the three table runners I'm working on. Should I purchase more fabric to get the binding done in one color, or can I piece the binding with, say, maybe 12-inch equal strips or so of each fabric used in the quilt (or maybe it should be more random like 6 inches of one fabric, 10 inches of another, 15 inches of another until I have a strip of 142 inches)? I've seen multi-fabric borders but never multi-fabric bindings.

Sure you can use a multi-fabric binding. Here's a tutorial for doing just that.

A friend of mine just showed quilts at guild that she had used up scraps of bindings in the quilts. It looked awesome!

It is your project, you can do whatever you want! However, you asked so I'll give my opinion. I think a scrappy binding would be a perfect solution in this case. I also think either of your choices about sizes of pieces would work but I like the idea of random sizes best.

Love using scraps but try to keep seams away from the corners.

I use mixed binding in some of my scrappy quilts. I think they look alright.

Thank you all. The tutorial was very helpful, but I wish there was a photo of the finished product.

My runners are being made from scrap fabrics I have on hand, so there is no money invested in them. In fact, I'm really making them as a learning project more than anything else. If they turn out halfway decent, I plan to keep one for my table and give the other two (if they want them) to my DD's for their dining room tables.

I bound a twister baby quilt using the scraps that were left after cutting the twister blocks. Looked great, but I am with Evelyn - be careful where the seams hit as far as the corners go. In my picture, you can see I was too close to the corner with a seam and it looked a little more rounded than I like! I also thought it was a pain to hand sew to the back as there were tons of seams! From what I understand you are thinking about, you wouldn't have so many seams! Post a picture when you finish so we can ooh and ahh!
Thanks,Susan

I did not do mine like that. I certainly will the next time. That is really pretty like that.

Thanks, Susan, for sharing that photo and for going to all the trouble that is involved in showing a picture here.

I love your binding, but that is a lot of work piecing those little fabrics together. I'm not so sure that my idea of random lengths and longer pieces will look as pretty as yours. But it would be a lot less seams to have to deal with. I do plan to blind stitch the binding to the back side

Your stippling really looks good, too! I'm having fun with that. I must say that I've gotten a lot more confident with meandering . . . and maybe a little bit skilled! I'm kind of sorry I bought a closed circle quilting foot though. I think the open-toed foot would make it much easier to see where I've been and where I want to go. Leah Day, in one of her videos, shows how to cut a section from the plastic circle on the foot, but I don't want to take the chance of ruining a foot that probably set me back $20-plus(and that was back in 2000).

If they turn out good enough, I'll post pix of all three of them.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CA Lori,

i have done random size pieces in bindings, with the leftover fabrics from that project.
it is your project, just sew them up and try it!

Almost all of my quilts have multi-fabric bindings and I think it is beautiful and fun. It can bring in colors from the quilt and tie it all together. I personally think they look great.

I don't know how well it will show. Here is mine. I cut 2.5 inch strips 6 & 8 inches long and sewed them end to end (joined on the diagonal.. not straight across)
I liked the way it turned out.

I did one quilt with random fabrics in the binding. I loved the finished quilt. I tried to check before I stitched each side and if a seam was too close to the corner I just took that piece out and added either a longer one or a shorter one. I thought that was easier than struggling with the seam on the corner. It's not like you have to be exact and it worked for me.
Good luck and have fun.....Alice