How to Finish Quilt Corners

Put the finishing touches on your quilt to create a work of fabric art.

When you sew a quilt, you put a lot of time and effort into piecing the top and stitching the quilted pattern to hold it together. Sometimes it can be difficult, after all that enthusiasm, to put the finishing touches on the quilt with binding. Never fear; finishing the corners on a quilt is not the daunting task it may at first appear to be. With a few steps you can bind your quilt with neatly mitered corners worthy of the quilt you worked so hard to create.

Things You'll Need

• Quilted quilt (top, batting, backing)
• Quilt binding
• Straight pins
• Sewing machine
• Thread
• Scissors
• Hand sewing needle

Instructions

1. Open up the binding you will use to finish your quilt edges. Line up the raw edge of the binding with the raw edge of your quilt top and pin it in place so the rest of the binding hangs down on the inside of the quilt top. Use straight pins to attach the binding all along one side of the quilt, starting 1/3 down from the top corner and going all the way to the bottom corner of that edge.

2. Stitch your quilt binding to the quilt. Use a straight stitch and position it 1/4 inch in from the raw edge of the binding and quilt top. Start stitching at the open end of the quilt binding and stop stitching 1/4 inch in from the bottom corner.

3. Backstitch to secure your thread, then remove the quilt from the sewing machine and clip the thread with scissors.

4. Fold the quilt binding at the corner so that it points out at a 90-degree angle from the seam you just stitched, creating a 45-degree angled fold in the binding at the corner. Fold the binding back over itself, overlapping it at the corner and lining up the raw edge with the next side of the quilt that you will stitch. Pin the binding in place along this edge.

5. Insert the quilt back in your sewing machine. Start sewing a seam on the new edge of the quilt, beginning 1/4 inch away from the corner you just folded and going all the way down to 1/4 inch away from the opposite corner.

6. Repeat Steps 2 through 5 to finish the remaining sides and corners of the quilt. Overlap the binding slightly when you reach the starting point, fold under the raw edges and stitch through all layers to fasten the ends together.

7. Remove any remaining pins from your quilt and fold the binding over to the back side of the quilt. When you fold it at the corners, they will create a mitered shape, where the binding angles together. Use a hand sewing needle and matching thread to sew the binding along its folded edge to the back of the quilt, making sure to straighten out the corners on both sides so they miter evenly.

References

• Quilter's Cache; Learning to Quilt, Lesson 5 -- Making/Adding Binding!; Marcia Hohn; November 2003
• Kaye Wood: Quilting the Kaye Wood Way -- Quilt Binding with Kaye's Perfect Mitered Corners
• Moonlight Quilters: Tip of the Needle -- Bindings: Perfect Mitered Bindings