Mitered corner dilema
 

Hi ladies and gents. I'm new here and have limited resources as far as quilt shops and classes, hope you can help! My issue.... Hand quilter and my mitered border corners ALWAYS stretch by the time I'm ready for the final squaring off of border corners and binding. Squaring off then throws my mitered seem off from the corner of the quilt! Any suggestions on stabilizing those corner during the long months of hand quilting??? Thank You!! :)

I'm thinking starch but let's see what those with more wisdom say.

Thanks quiltingbuddy, I will absolutely try starch. I'm also thinking maybe a narrow edging of light weight interfacing on the back side of the quilt?

I don't hand quilt and seldom mitre borders, but here are some thoughts.

Starch, as suggested.
Stay-stitching.
Make the corner bigger than necessary and don't trim until after you quilt it.
Put a narrow layer of fusible just inside the seam allowance.

I'm sure there must be other suggestions. I don't know whether any of them would actually work for you or not.

I have done limited hand quilting but I would certainly try starching but I would baste a little closer in the corners that is if you do baste at all. If not, I would at least start basting in the corners when you have mitre corners.

I use a thin strip of fusible web slightly smaller in width than the seam allowance on the miter. Then iron I to the seam allowance only , then iron it to sandwich. It keeps it from moving around and getting stretched. If it a particularly wide border I sometime use a very thin strip( 1/4 inch) of fusible at the outer edge for about one foot on each side of the miter to really control the any stretch in that area.

I just took a class with David Taylor and he shared how he keeps his quilts flat and stable while machine quilting and hand embroidery. He uses polyester 1/2 inch twill tape, irons it open, and sews it on the front of the quilt using a 1/4 inch seam. He sews it in the "ditch" of the tape, ultimately making it 1/4 inch when you fold it up even with the edge. Then he does his quilting on the machine, then binds the quilt the regular way. He said he got it at Walmart because that's his option where he lives.

there are lots of shops in your area. Hmmmm....
sandy

Thanks to everyone for the excellent ideas. Will definitely put a couple of them to use on my next quilt, I love the mitered corners. I always find room for improvement no matter how many quilts I've made! Just finishing an old quilt of my mothers with 11 inch border, mitered corners. One corner was soooooo stretched.