Mitered Corner Borders

Mitered Corner Borders

Borders added to a quilt gives a frame to the center blocking. There are different types of Borders. Mitered Corner Borders which I will show you how to make below. Then there is straight line borders where the border fabric directly butts up against the next side border.  Myself personally I like the Mitered Corner, it looks more finished than the more simpler straight line border.  But it is all choices in quilting and we need to do what we like and what we each feel the quilt needs. 

The Mitered Corner Borders that I do is almost the same as the Mitered corner binding that I did in an earlier post. The same techniques will be used for the most part, and that may be why I like it. 

So lets begin. 

The Border fabric needs to be made so it can be attached to the sides of the quilt. I make my borders with diagonal seams, attaching the strips of fabric into a long continuous border.  

In this tutorial I will be using 4" wide WOF [Width of Fabric] strips. 

The quilt is 78" x 91", so I add 78" x 2 [156], and 91" x 2 [182] plus corners [40"] to get the length I will need [378]. ["Plus Corners" How do we figure that out? 4" wide border plus a inch = 5" then times the two sides = 10" per corner. 10" x 4 = 40" for the fabric needed for the corners.] 

378" ÷ 40" = 9.45 strips of 4" fabric,  or 10 Strips is needed WOF. [Length needed is 378" divided by Usable Width of Fabric, 40" equals 9.45 strips but we round up to be safe to 10 strips WOF at 4" wide.]  

Cut Ten 4" strips of fabric for  Border strips. 

Trim Selvage edge. 

Diagonally sew strips together to make a continuous border strip. 

Trim seams and Press seams open to minimize bulk.

Align the Border strip even with the raw edge of the quilt top, starting about center of that side of quilt top. 

Do not sew the first 6"-10" of the border strip to the quilt top, leave it loose so once you have attached all sides, you will have room to attached the two border strip ends together.

Start attaching at the right side of the quilt top. Sew the borders to the quilt top with a 1/4" seam allowance.

Sew down the side and off the end of that side of the quilt top. Remove from under the presser foot, trim threads. 

Using something [I use a piece of cardboard], line up the cardboard even on the left side of the width of border fabric [4" wide border fabric], make a line on the cardboard to use as a measurement in the following instructions. 

In the next step we are going to make a "loop" at the end of the just sewn border fabric. The end of the "loop" will mark where we will start sewing the border to the next side of the quilt top. The "loop" will be used to make the mitered corner.  

Using the just made piece of cardboard with the mark showing the 4" width of border fabric. 

Measure the border fabric from where you stopped sewing on the first side of the quilt top. Measure the border fabric up to the marked line, then an additional inch or so past the mark on the cardboard, fold the border fabric down like it shows in the following picture. 

 Place a pin or mark on the border fabric where it comes back down to the end of the cardboard.  See arrow on next picture. That pin or mark is where you will attach the border fabric to the next side of the quilt top. 

Aligning the border fabric to the next side of the quilt top, start sewing from the top edge down the side about 4 or 5 inches using 1/4" seam allowance. 

Stop sewing,  cut threads and remove from presser foot of machine. 

We are now going to make our first Mitered Corner with that loop of the border fabric. 

Your borders attached to the two sides of quilt top will have a loop made by the border fabric and it will look like the following picture. [this is the beginnings of a Mitered corner of border fabric]

Turning the Border fabric where the seams show, the backside of the quilt top. The point of the corner of the quilt top fabric needs to be folded in half, which allows the two border fabrics to align. 

[See Below picture. The brown in this picture is the center of the quilt top, the cream is the border fabric].  

Align the two border fabrics where edges are even. 

With the "Loop" of border fabric going out to your right side. 

Using a square up ruler, [I am using a 6.5 x 6.5 square up ruler with seam allowance line shown], Align the rulers diagonal line with the bottom edge of the border fabric. 

Align the seam allowance line with the 1/4" sewn seam of the quilt top. 

I cut the "extra" off using a rotary cutter against the ruler.  Some will use a pencil and mark a line, then sew. It is your choice, do what is comfortable for you. 

Sew the 1/4" seam allowance from quilt top corner down to point of border fabric. 

After sewn

Another angle after it is sewn. 

Unfold and press.  Your first Mitered corner is done!!! 

Refold fabric and continue sewing where you had already sewn down the next side. Sew to end, going off the end of fabric. Then redo the step we just did to make the next mitered corner.

When you turn to the last side of the quilt, that side is also the side that we started on. At the other end you have the tail of the first part of the border.   

You will sew down that side stopping about 6" to 8" from where that tail starts being sewn. 

If you pull the tails so they lay in opposite directions it will look like this. 

Lay right side of border over to the left, as in picture. It should end as it does in the picture, right where the left border stops being sewed. If it is longer then trim it where it ends as it does in the picture. 

Lay the left border over the right one as in picture. [I have it slightly raised so you can see the right border under the left one. ]

Lay the marked piece of cardboard were the line on the cardboard is even with where the left border's sewing is stopped. Then draw a line on the right side where the cardboard ends. This should be 4" as it should be the same width as the border is. [In my mitered binding blog, I didn't use a piece of cardboard I actually used the tail of the binding strip to measure this. but either can be used.]

Trim the Left border where you just marked. ONLY the left border do not trim the right one. 

Now lay right sides together, the left and right borders. We will be sewing a diagonal line from the top left corner of the right binding strip down to the point where the left border stops on the right side.  [the top of the right border should lay along the long side of the left border. The long side of the right border should be even with the the end side of the left border.] 

Pin to secure. 

Sew from top left corner down to the point where the right border and the end of the left border are. 

Once sewn remove from presser foot and open the borders so it lays flat. it should fit exactly to the quilt top. [see picture, the border is not sewn to quilt top yet, but you can see they will lay flat]

Flip border over and trim the excess a 1/4" away from sewn line to create seam allowance. 

Press seam open, so it will lay flat. 

Flip border over and make sure it lays evenly with quilt side. Sew 1/4" seam allowance to finish attaching border. 

All done. 

Again I do mine this way because it is so similar to the way I do my mitered corners on the binding.  You can do the same miter, but in a different way, and the way that most Youtube videos show which is to create border fabric for each side of the quilt, making sure you have lots extra at the top and bottom of each strip. Sew strips to quilt top and bottom, centering strip on center of that side. Then sew strips to quilt sides, centering strip on center of those sides.  Once you have the strips sewn on then you work on the mitered corners, very similarly to what I have done. Folding the quilt top corner in half, using ruler as I did marking then sewing and trimming.. just as I did. 

    

I find their way uses a lot more fabric because your guessing how long do you need those tails to be on each end of the strip. where as mine uses the exact width of the border plus a inch on each side. not as much waste. 

But there are no quilt police you need to do the method that works for you! 

Happy Sewing. 

Becky