Quiltingboard Forums - Shark Tooth Border

I decided to put a Shark Tooth Border on my Affairs of the Heart Quilt. Actually there will be 3 rows of these borders as the quilt progresses, but for now I'm making one around the center 16 blocks. I thought I should put up here how I did this border for those who might not 1) know what a Shark Tooth Border is & 2) have no idea how to go about making one for their quilt.

I will start by saying that the inner unit has 4 rows of 4 - 10" blocks. That means that if I cut everything correctly, I will need 4 borders of 40 1/2" which includes the seam allowance. I did measure through the center - both ways & I got it right!

I drew out a small drawing of a 10" segment of the border.

Drawing of segment for part of the border. This is 1 1/2 wide by 10 long. I marked every 2 along the long side. I used my 6 1/2 square ruler & laid it on the 45° angle line, drawing a line from the bottom edge up to over halfway past the middle.

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I went back along that long side with the ruler angled the other way to complete the triangles.

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I added seam allowances all aroud. I drew a line 1/4 above the points of the triangles to determine how wide I needed to cut the strip of multi-colored fabric. I needed 1 1/2 by the Width of the Fabric.

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After I cut the multi-colored batik strip, I drew a line 1/4 from one long edge. I marked the end of the strip & every 2 along the length. When I had 40 , I marked the other end. The marks go from the seam line to the opposite side. These will be cutting lines.

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Next, I cut all the short lines & cut off the ends. I left no seam allowance at the short ends of the strips. Don't cut all the way through. ☺

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Next comes the pressing of the teeth. Place the strip with the markings facing up. The bottom row of teeth shows one edge pressed. The top strip shows both edges pressed. You now have a 40 long strip of Sharks Teeth ready to be appliqued!

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Now you need to mark the background strip. I cut this piece 2 wide by the width of the fabric. I trimmed it down to 40 1/2 to add the seam allowances. For marking, alll I did was mark 1/4 at one end, then every 2 until I got to the other edn, which left me with the other 1/4 seam allowance. Then you need to match the little hash marks with the innie point of each triangle all the way down the line. Pin in place.

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This shows the strip pinned and ready to stitch down. I was so anxious to get this sewn that I forgot to set the stitch length to a longer stitch so it would be easier to remove after appliqueing was finished. Remembered after I did the 3rd one!!! Safety reminder - don't sew over your pins!

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Here I am stitching away. I had considered doing it by machine, but since the blocks are all hand stitched. I decided that I would continue with the hand stitching. You can see how short my machine stitches were. Oh, well, I have finished one strip & removed the stitches. It wasn't too bad as I wasn't using tiny stitched like I usually do for piecing, but used the defaule length of 2.2. I am using a light grey thread as this is a multi-colored batik. Blending in very nicely.

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Remove the basting stitches. Trim out the background fabric.

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Trim out the folded over pieces of the teeth, but leave a little edge visible. When we were all taking Home Ec, this was called grading the seam. I did it to reduce the bulk gradually.

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You are now ready to sew it to your quilt top. I haven't figured out how I am going to do the corners, yet as I had no idea how I was going get this far! I will be sewing them on to the center unit with the points facing out towards the next row of blocks that surround this center unit.

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Here is one side of the center unit with one strip placed along side so you can get an idea of how this will look when sewn on. When I took this picture, I hadn't appliques the teeth down yet.

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This is a close-ip of the border.

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