Friday, October 16, 2015

Friday Finish: Maple Leaf Star Flimsy

I finished adding the outer border to the Maple Leaf Star blocks this week, so now it's a finished flimsy.  This one will have to be added to my longarmer's list; I don't have the skills to do this one justice. 
Maple Leaf Star Flimsy

The border print needed to be mitered, and I was able to match the print.
One of Four Mitered Corners - Matched Print

All four corners came out well; I'm pleased with them.
Four Matched Miters

Here's a better shot of the whole top:
Maple Leaf Star Flimsy

Closer, so you can see the corners
Top Half Showing Border Print

A brief description of how I match the print (or stripe) in mitered borders. No photos, sorry. This process required my full attention and I didn't think to stop and take photos. This works for symmetrical prints and stripes. This assumes you already are familiar with how to attach mitered borders.
  • I sewed the long sides on first, matching the center of a print repeat at the center of the quilt. In the photo immediately above, the print is aligned with the bottom visible sashing.
  • Then I laid the equally long cut strips for the top and bottom borders on each corner right sides together and carefully pinned the fabric to match the print, especially the stripey lines. I marked my 45 degree miter seam and pinned some more, to make sure the print matched exactly on my seam line.
  • Basted the miter seam, then when good enough, stitched with a short stitch length. All four corners should come out identical.
  • After I sewed the miters I measured the top & bottom borders from the sides to the quilt's center, and marked both ends of the border at this measurement, with extra border fabric in the middle. Wherever in the repeat the print ended up, I pinned it to make a mirror image match at the center.
  • Again, basted, then sewed the center seam, pressed open, and cut away the excess. Then finished sewing the top & bottom borders to the quilt. You can see that there isn't a full repeat of the print in the top border in the photo below, but the mirror image match is not objectionable.
  • Top and bottom borders should come out identical.
Top Border with Mirror Image Match at Center

A closer view:
Mirror Image Match

Linking up today with Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Friday Finish at Crazy Mom Quilts.


11 comments:

  1. The final border came together beautifully, Jan!

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  2. Totally awesome job on the mitering and on joining the top and bottom borders!!! The border fabric repeat couldn't have ended up better on the sides, finishing with a complete "arrow". Nice!!!

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  3. Wow, I'm impressed with your border and all those mitered corners! Well done. Nice pattern.

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  4. I just love that border - sew nicely done! I want to be able to miter corners like that when I grow up :-)

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  5. So elegant. I really like the sashing and borders.

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  6. Your mitered boarder is amazing. You matched it so close it really looks like one sold piece of fabric. Congrats on your flimsy finish.

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  7. Congrats on the gorgeous finish!

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  8. It came out amazingly well! Your technique is really the only way to make sure all 4 corners come out the same.

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  9. That's incredible! Thanks for sharing your border technique! I've always steered away from doing anything with a border print because I had no idea how to deal with the corners, but I'm going to give it a try now. Thank you!

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  10. I've mitered plenty of corners, but never with a print fabric like yours. You did an amazing job on matching the fabric. Beautiful. I love this quilt!

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