Borders

 

Border joins

When you need a join in the border fabric consider making a feature of the join by either inserting feature corners or features elsewhere in the border as shown in these photos.

Peepers

A peeper is a small folded strip border. It is sometimes known as a ‘flange’ or a ‘crumb catcher’.

 

Peepers are usually only ¼” wide when finished but can add an accent to a border. The cream line in the border opposite is a peeper. It is only attached along one edge, the other edge is folded and stands proud of the border.

 

There are some very helpful videos online to help you create a few different types of peeper.

 

The peeper can be attached to either the quilt top before adding the next border or to the border before adding it to the quilt top. Sew it using a 1/8” seam allowance when attaching it but use a ¼” allowance when adding the border strip, thus covering the stitching used to attach the peeper.

 

 

Border corners

Borders can be pieced or plain.

 

 

When joining corners of the border fabric you can attach the borders to the short side then trim to the quilt top. Then you can join borders to the long sides forming a square join at the corner of the quilt top. This is shown in the next photo.

 

 

Another choice is to mitre the corner joins. Mitres are sometimes difficult to achieve but one simple way is to use masking tape as shown below.

 Masking tape mitred corners

  

• Attach the border fabric to the block leaving 1/4” unattached at each end of the block. Fold under top layer to form the mitre, lining up the edges of both border flaps so that they are parallel.
• Stick this diagonal fold in position using masking tape.

 

• Turn piece over to wrong side and draw a line allowing your pencil to be guided by the bulkiness of the fold 

• Fold back the whole piece so that the two borders lie on top of one another then sew them together using the pencil line to guide the sewing foot. Be careful not to sew through the masking tape. 

• Remove the masking tape to reveal a beautiful mitred corner.
• Cut away the excess fabric from the back of the mitre.