If you’ve never found a good way to get an accurate mitered corner in a quilt border, try this method and see if it works as well for you as it does for me.

1. Cut the border fabric long enough so that the short end of the border fabric goes at least as far as the border on each adjacent side will be. So if your border will finish at 7 1/2″ wide, the border fabric needs to be 15″ wider than the unfinished quilt top.
2. Start by stitching the border onto the quilt, matching the centers and stopping 1/4″ from the raw edge of the quilt. Backstitch. Make sure the stitching just meets at the mark 1/4″ from the corners.
3. Press the seams toward the borders.
4. At one corner, fold the border down so it lays on the inside of the quilt and the short end butts up against, or goes beyond the border on the adjacent side.

Fold one border onto the quilt and adjacent border

5. Find the corner where the 2 border pieces meet on the outside of the quilt and pin right into the corner.

Pin right at the corner where the borders cross on the outside edge

6. Fold back the top border between the pin and the place where the stitching lines meet at the corner of the quilt. Usea ruler to check the angle. It should be 45 degrees. With a striped fabric like this one, you can also line up the stripes so they are straight. I can barely see the fold in this photo because the lines match so well. It shows a little on the far right. Press to crease the miter.

Fold back at 45 degree angle, use a ruler to insure accuracy. Press.

7. Now that you have  a crease, lift the border piece that is on top and smooth it out right side up. Align the crease so that it forms a 90 degree angle when placed on top of the adjacent border.

square mitered corner, check with a ruler

8. Now, mark where the corners join and carefully lift up that crease. Use Elmer’s water soluble School Glue or a water soluble glue stick that you are confident will wash out and apply some glue to the underside of the crease. I use Elmer’s School Glue because I know it will wash out.

Glue underside of crease wieh Elmer's School Glue

9. Press crease in place.

Press, making sure to keep a square corner

10. Okay, now that the miter is in place and can’t go anywhere, you’re just about set. Turn it to the back side and you will see the crease.

Crease from backside

11. Pull the quilt center away from the border. It will fold up at the same angle as the miter. You don’t want it in your way when you’re stitching. Notice that the crease starts at the place where the stitching meets in the corners of the quilt.

Fold away quilt center

12. Stitch from the place where the stitching meets in the corners of the quilt to the outside of the border right on the crease.

Stitch along crease

13. Trim away excess fabric.

Trim excess fabric

So there you have it! This is the easiest, most accurate method I’ve used for  mitering corners. And since the glue comes out when the quilt is washed, stiffness is not a problem. I love that I don’t have to mess with pins OR slippery fabric!

Have you seen the newest design I made for Timeless Treasures?  They sent me the most scrumptious batiks to work with and this was the challenge: design a quilt that will look great in 2 totally different color ways, uses 12 fabrics each, all in the same amounts. Once I got my brain in the right frame of mind, the rest was a blast.

Here’s a tip: When you’re making the  long diagonal seams along the line that you’ve drawn on the block, be sure your seam allowance is a scant 1/4″. I just put the “fence” on my 1/4″ foot on the far side of the line and that worked very well. By doing this, you’ll be sure to have enough fabric to square up to exactly 12 1/2″. On the other hand, if the whole block is a bit smaller, the quilt police are not coming….
In this block, there are actually some goofy little seams that end up out in the middle of nowhere, that are part of the reason this block is so easy to make. It is also the reason I have you being a bit careful about matching the colors when you’re adding the frames around the squares. When the colors match, those goofy seams just don’t show. Using this goofy seam method keeps us from having to stitch a really long, unprotected bias edge and from having to match what would be diagonally cut frame pieces. Whew, I feel better already. Have fun with this!

revised figure 2a

When I first started quilting, I spent many years on a quest for the perfect way to do curved piecing. Having come from a garment making background, I have no idea why I was so afraid of the idea, but I was, so off I went to class after class. I learned techniques that involved registration lines, freezer paper, lots of fabric marking, masking tape, glue, bias tape, light boxes and many variations of machine appliqué.

Of all the techniques I learned, the one I’m going to show you is by far my favorite because it is easy and the rules are simple. Just layer the fabrics to be pieced right side up and cut through all layers with a gentle curve, then stitch them together with a narrow seam. Although it’s not a technique you can use for all kinds of curved piecing, it works great in the Central Park quilt I made for Timeless Treasures that was released in May, 2008.

When making the Central Park quilt, I have you cutting 7 layers at once, which works great with a rotary cutter, but for this example, we’ll just be using 2 fabrics so you can get the general idea.

1. Start with 2 pieces of fabric sized generously larger than your finished block size. We are using 9″ x 14″ for the blocks in Central Park, which finish at 7″ x 13″.
2. Stack the pieces right sides up.
3. Find the center of the short end of the stack and mark with a crease or marker just at the ends.

   

4. Place your ruler so that its outside edge is about 1 1/4″ from the center on each end of the fabric and cut a gentle curve with a rotary cutter, moving out about an inch from where you start in the widest part of the curve, and then going back to the ruler.

   

5. Repeat for the opposite side of the block. The starting and ending points of the cuts should be approximately 2 1/2″ apart at the ends of the blocks.
6. Separate the stacks. Lift out the center section of the top fabric and set it aside, keeping it right side up.

   

7. Move the top layer of the piece of fabric to the right of the center over onto the remaining center piece, right sides together and aligning the top edges.

   

8. Take the to the sewing machine and take 1 or 2 stitches along the curved edge with a seam allowance slightly smaller than 1/4″. The smaller the seam allowance, the easier it will be for your block to lie flat when you’re finished, and the 2 curves will argue less with each other. So try to keep it between 1/8″ and 1/4″.

   

9. Put your needle in the down position and put your right hand on the bottom fabric to control it as it feeds into the machine. Use your left hand to hold and control the top fabric. You will need to adjust each piece separately as you go along your seam, stitching slowly. Keep an eye on that bottom fabric so it doesn’t squirrel away from you.
   1. When the curve on your bottom piece bows out to the right, the bottom (right)hand moves toward the left and the left hand with the top fabric moves toward the right.

      

   2. Reversely, when the curve on your bottom piece bows inward to the left, the bottom (right) hand moves toward the right and the left hand with the top fabric moves toward the left. This becomes really easy after you actually start doing it!

      

10. When you finish stitching, check to be sure your seam is a fairly consistent size–less than 1/4″ all along. Make adjustments if necessary.

1. Repeat for the other side of the center with the top fabric from the remaining stack. Press seams to one side.
2. Make another, opposite block from the remaining center and 2 sides.
3. Stack the blocks again and trim to 7 1/2″ x 13 1/2″.

   

   

Now that I’ve seen how really easy it is to make this type of seam, I marvel at how many years I wasted not doing them. I hope that you will be braver than I was and dive right in. They look so much more difficult than they are, you’ll be glad you did!