Why miter the borders?
#61
I only miter borders when using a pattern that can "turn the corner". Or striped fabric where I can make it meet to turn the corner. Use strips on sides then top and bottom most of the time. Personal choice here. One can always use the fabric cut off when mitering for scrap quilts. Personal choice.
#63
Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: West Central Iowa
Posts: 69
Don't miter the corners, but I do miter the corners on the binding. Was watching a judge at the county fair. If your binding was not mitered she just put the quilt aside and would not consider it for a ribbon.
#64
Super Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Orbiting
Posts: 1,448
You know what's so funny! Hearing about that judge passing on unmitered binding. We should send her to the quilt museum in Paducah! Let her judge all the beautiful antique quilts there and see how many she would give a ribbon to!
I remember my first jean quilt, I did not know how to put binding on and I did a really bad job of it. Later, when I learned how, I tried to get the quilt back from my then 13 year old son. He told me to keep my mitts off his quilt! He didn't care that the binding wasn't put on and that the quilt police might give me a ticket! He loved his quilt just the way it was. He got a big kick out of helping me tie his quilt.
I bet the quilt police really don't approve of "tieing" quits either. When I was a kid, that's the only way we did it. When machine quilting started being so popular, the quilting police had to relent and some, to this day, will still claim it's not a real quilt unless it's hand quilted!
I remember my first jean quilt, I did not know how to put binding on and I did a really bad job of it. Later, when I learned how, I tried to get the quilt back from my then 13 year old son. He told me to keep my mitts off his quilt! He didn't care that the binding wasn't put on and that the quilt police might give me a ticket! He loved his quilt just the way it was. He got a big kick out of helping me tie his quilt.
I bet the quilt police really don't approve of "tieing" quits either. When I was a kid, that's the only way we did it. When machine quilting started being so popular, the quilting police had to relent and some, to this day, will still claim it's not a real quilt unless it's hand quilted!
#65
Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 54
This is a picture of a miter from my tutorial at http://blog.caronmosey.com/2009/12/t...er-corner.html . It is the final step of the miter process, but before the excess fabric is trimmed off the back after sewing the miter.
#68
Originally Posted by Blackberry
Originally Posted by jayelee
I dont miter my borders becuse it overwhelms me I just cant figure out how
#69
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Piedmont Virginia in the Foothills of the Blue Ridge Mtns.
Posts: 8,562
Originally Posted by AlwaysQuilting
I rarely miter the corners on my quilts.
I knew a Mennonite and she got me hooked on making quilts.
She didn't miter her corners. She said it's worldly and a waste of fabric, and they try not to waste anything. That made sense to me.
So to this day I don't miter unless someone requests it.
Am I the minority? Do you always miter your corners?
I knew a Mennonite and she got me hooked on making quilts.
She didn't miter her corners. She said it's worldly and a waste of fabric, and they try not to waste anything. That made sense to me.
So to this day I don't miter unless someone requests it.
Am I the minority? Do you always miter your corners?
Point of view is a strange thing, isn't it.
Mitered borders generally look more polished, skilled, "finished," professional, in my view.
If I'm applying more than one border, and I usually do, then I sew all the border strips together first and apply to the top as one unit, with mitered corners done in one step. If I'm using a large print, I can often plan the print placement in the corners with a miter, which creates a complete pattern -- such as a full flower not cut off in the middle of a bloom.
Use a long ruler with a 45 degree angle line on it. Pin. Mark your miter line. Pin. Sew the first couple corners with a larger basting stitch. Check it out; if it works, then resew and trim.
[Basting prevents the frustration of reverse sewing a long tightly sewn seam if you find you've mitered the wrong direction and have made a fitted sheet instead of a flat quilt!] I taught myself to miter; you can too. Go for it!
Jan in VA
#70
Power Poster
Join Date: May 2009
Location: NY
Posts: 10,590
My very first quilt had mitered borders because that is how the instructions in the book read. I am glad because it taught me the process. I like the look of pieced borders and cornerstones as well. So now I only miter if I am using a border fabric with a print that calls for it, like a stripe of some sort, or as many here have also posted, when I have multiple borders it is sometimes easier to sew the borders together and then miter them on. Always it is dependent on if I have enough of my border fabric. I tend to buy fabric and stash and then choose a quilt pattern. This has bitten me in the behind more times then I care to admit and of course by the time I end up making the quilt out of said stash the fabric is several years old and impossible to find more of. You'd think I'd learn. Well I guess I have, when stash building I just buy more yardage :lol:
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