Baby Quilt- Finished!

I finally finished applying the binding to a baby quilt, and it is ready to go to little Carter over the holidays!

I made a label and colored it with Tsukineko inks.  I like to add fabric strips to the cotton label to coordinate with the quilt fabrics.

It is from a book of quilt label designs that I have had since the mid-90's.

This quilt was last seen in my post of July 16, before we left for Canada and later Florida.  It was all quilted, but needed some kind of binding.  The quilt top is a whole-cloth "cheater" quilt that looks like patchwork.  It is soft as a cloud!  To make it even more cuddly, I used Minky dot fabric on the back.  

How to bind it became an issue.  I wanted the edges to be just as soft as the rest of the quilt, so I used leftover strips from trimming the backing.  

Oh, my!  It looked like a fluff war had taken place in my sewing room!  The fabric shredded like crazy when I cut the backing strips.  Can you see all the little dots on the cutting mat?  My clothes were covered with even more!

My usual procedure of making a double-fold French binding would not work with the thick Minky fabric, and mitered corners were out of the question.  I decided to sew strips to each side and turn them over to the back.

After sewing each strip to the front, I zigzag-stitched the seam allowance.  Then I turned under the unseen edge of the strip and zigzagged it as well.

Finally, I turned the strip to the back and straight-stitched it down.

The edging is rather thick, but I don't think it will unravel or shred.  That little boy is going to have one soft blankie when he gets this quilt!  I ordered both the top and backing fabric from Hancock Fabrics several years ago.