Before our summer break, quilting instructor Sandy presented a lesson on mitering borders. Her method was from Patti Carey. Subsequently I found this video link illustrating essentially the same method: Mitered border tutorial
Although it is not quite as easy as "1.2.3.", if one applies the steps shown, it actually does work well. I especially like the effect when joining striped borders.
So, the steps Sandy presented (with the first being her own addition) were:
- STARCH your border fabric! (Yes, this is step one...starch & press the borders to be mitered.)
- Sew the border strips together, if adding more than one border. (You will need to allow more than the combined width of the quilt for each border length. See measurement instructions below.)
- Measure the quilt top through the center and at the ends to find the shortest measurement.
- After ascertaining the width and length of the top, subtract 1/4 inch from these measurements and save for reference. Example: Quilt measures 30 1/2 x 45 1/2, record as 30 1/4 x 45 1/4.)
- Lay the border out straight and trim one end at a 45 degree angle out away from you. Measure from the initial cut point to the recorded measure (for instance 30 1/4 inch in the example given) and trim at the opposite end 45 degrees...again away from you.
- Repeat for each border strip, marking the 1/4 inch from each corner to find the sewing point. It is also helpful to mark the quarter inch seam crosspoints on the quilt top. Then using a pin you can find the exact point to join by piercing center points of allowances of both the quilt top and the border being joined. Attach the borders starting and ending at the 1/4 inch marks you made; DO NOT PRESS anything, yet.
- Now sew the mitered seams from OUTER CORNER TO SEAM-LINE matching all the strips of the borders as you come to them. BACKSTITCH at the end. (Glue stick may come in handy for this step.)
- FINALLY press the mitered seams open and the quilt seams toward the border. [Sandy says she presses all the seams to the outside.] Happy dance may begin now.
Below are a couple of the projects I've used this on since receiving the hands on tutorial from Sandy. Note the flip side of the teaching sample, showing the seams pressed:
You can see that the mitering does not make much difference on the brown dot fabric in the bottom right photo. However the stripes both of the bamboo-look and the red/pink fabrics (bottom left and bottom right photos) run into each other and line up for a very nice effect, don't you think?
As with any new technique, the more frequently you use it, the more intuitive it becomes. One of the biggest challenges the class members experienced was getting the ruler edges lined up to make the 45 degree angle cut in the proper direction. It was a little gratifying to see that this was a challenge for the illustrators in the video tutorial, as well. Just keep twirling that ruler like a baton till you find the sweet spot for that first cut...then prepare to wrestle with it once more at the other end of the strip. By the 8th cut you'll be a pro...till the next quilt comes along. ;o)
Hmmm. Maybe it would be best to do all four of your "first 45 degree" cuts at one time before going on to make the other-end, other-direction cuts on the final four.
"Miter" known, there'll always be more than one way to border a quilt.
As with any new technique, the more frequently you use it, the more intuitive it becomes. One of the biggest challenges the class members experienced was getting the ruler edges lined up to make the 45 degree angle cut in the proper direction. It was a little gratifying to see that this was a challenge for the illustrators in the video tutorial, as well. Just keep twirling that ruler like a baton till you find the sweet spot for that first cut...then prepare to wrestle with it once more at the other end of the strip. By the 8th cut you'll be a pro...till the next quilt comes along. ;o)
Hmmm. Maybe it would be best to do all four of your "first 45 degree" cuts at one time before going on to make the other-end, other-direction cuts on the final four.
"Miter" known, there'll always be more than one way to border a quilt.