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Sunday, January 04, 2009

Mitered Corners


I thought this quilt really needed mitred corners but I have never done them on multiple borders so I made a pillow cover with two borders. The miters turned out ok but not quite perfect on the last corner.
It's a lot harder with a huge quilt and this one is already 90 inches square with one more 5 inch border to go. I got the first border done and the first corner of the second one. It's not perfect but I'm not sure I can make it any better if I try to re-do it. I don't know why the lace pattern doesn't meet quite evenly but the corner is square so it may be a trade off. Any ideas?
On looking at the corners again, I realize that the problem is with the lace pattern on the fabric, not the mitre. The curve of the pattern doesn't meet at the same part of the curve. Well, it's pretty close and I don't have the skill to make it any better.


I replied to comments for the last two posts and they all bounced back to me. This hasn't happened with regular email so I'm thinking it must be Blogger. Has anyone else on Blogger had this problem?

12 comments:

Brenda said...

oooh, I'm terrible with mitres myself. but all those precision piecers at Barnswallows are great at it, or call my mom. I she's great at stuff like that. do you have her number?

quiltmom anna said...

Hi Joyce,
I don't have any suggestions with the miter corner- it is always such a trade off trying to rip something out so you can get it the way you think it should be -
The quilt does look lovely right now but may not be the way you want it to look.
I am having some problems with this old computer this morning but I don't know if it is me using the old computer or other some other wierdness going on- Hopefully it stops soon.
Happy New Year to you and yours,
Anna

quiltmom anna said...

HI Joyce,
Just a postscript- I am having a hard time reading some people's blogs- I go in and the computer kicks me out while I am opening them - gives some weird error message- maybe it is a sign that I need to go and quilt instead of read blogs LOL Hope you are surviving the snow and cold. It is suppose to warm up today so I might go and see if my car will start so I can get to work tomorrow. :D)
Regards,
Anna

meggie said...

I too, am having problems with comments & blogs. Another friend said the same yesterday. I get told I am navigating away from the page, when I am NOT!
That quilt looks good to me. I have not tried large mitres.

Nellie's Needles said...

If those corners bother you enough, a whole pattern repeat cut from that fabric could be appliqued to cover up the misaligned pattern.

The trick is to cut the sides so the exact same pattern is at both ends. If you desire the same pattern in each corner, it most likely will be necessary to make a cut in the middle of those lengths and rejoin them so there will be the same pattern at each end. You end up with a new and interesting pattern where the seam falls in the middle of each side.

Lise said...

Your midered corners are great, just the pattern on the fabric makes it look uneven but still looks good...I haven't come across the problem of posts bouncing back to me,,, maybe I've been lucky??

jovaliquilts said...

Wow, tough. I think you'd have to do the math for the inner border so that the repeats meet correctly at the mitre. Does sound like a real pain! But even though this doesn't meet perfectly, it still looks pretty good.

Sorry, no, I haven't had any trouble with comments bouncing back. Maybe your settings somehow got changed? But it sounds more like a problem with your server.

Liz said...

I used a Jenny Beyer trick and made sure to line up the pieces of fabric when I cut them - and measured out from the center. That way the design was exactly the same at each end of the strip and met perfectly at the corners. (Does that make sense?)

em's scrapbag said...

I have never done mitered corners before. So I'm no help, sorry. Something I need to learn. The quilt looks lovely, even if the lace does not quite match up.

Judy said...

That is a gorgeous quilt. I love the challenge of mitreing border corners, but that must be so frustrating with the lace being off just a bit. I'm glad you realized that it's not you, but rather the lace!
I'm not having that reply problem with blogger so far. Notice I am saying 'so far'! LOL

I'm amazed at your snow! It is in the 50s here and we are having a lot of rain, which is good since we have been under drought conditions for a couple of years now.

xo

Elsie Montgomery said...

One tip that works for me is to sew all the border pieces together first, then add them to the quilt top as one piece. That way, the miter is done only once. Of course this is more difficult (and needs more math) if some of the fabrics have a pattern in them that must work out evenly at both ends of the border piece.

Also, after you are done, squaring and steam/blocking will do wonders with the wobbles!!

Donna said...

when I do mutliple mitred borders, like LC I put them all together and then do one big mitre across them all... keeps them all lined up beautifully...