Have you ever wondered why
there are so many quilt tops that are stored in closets
or sold at antique shops? The creative part of the process
is piecing the top. The finishing process? Well, not as much fun,
and sometimes intimidating. This program kicks off
a three-part series which takes a simple approach
to finishing quilt projects. The borders, quilting,
and binding. Whether your next quilt project
is a small table topper or a great big queen size quilt,
the techniques are the same. Let's start with borders. "Fearless Quilting Finishes,"
that's what's next on Sewing with Nancy . Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing
sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman is made possible by: Baby Lock, a complete line
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and Klassé needles. When talking about quilting
on Sewing with Nancy often I concentrate on
the middle part of the design kind of ignoring
the borders and the bindings and sometimes
the quilting process. Not so
during this series. You might see some friends from past
Sewing with Nancy programs borders that we pulled
from previous projects. This shows an L-shaped border,
the most simple type. Then simply
a double border that you see
on this table topper. I'll also show you
how to insert a flange a nice little-bitty accent that just sets off
a quilt project. Then cornerstones whether you have
double cornerstones or single it carries through what you've
seen in the rest of the quilt kind of
a nice finishing touch. It's basic, but if you
haven't finished your quilt top maybe one of these quilts ideas
will work for you. Now for the fabric. When you've chosen your fabric
for your borders do give it a little spray
to begin with. We use a spray starch
or a spray starch substitute so that it's like having
a little extra stabilizer on your fabric. Just press that in,
so that it's nice and crisp. Most of the time borders are cut
on the cross grain from selvage to selvage. We'd put a ruler on here,
no matter what size you'd cut whatever width you determine,
you'd cut that width. With the spray starch on there,
it is nice and crisp. This is
pretty normal. But professional quilters often
cut the fabric for the borders if they have enough,
on the lengthwise grain. I've cut this
on the lengthwise grain to show you that the selvage
is still there. You may say,
"Why do I do that?" This is so much easier. Believe it or not,
the way fabric is woven even though it's woven,
not knit in the cross grain,
it does have some stretch. Sometimes,
when putting borders on you can warp it a little bit if you're very concerned
about the shape of your design. When it's cut on the lengthwise
grain, that's the most stable. It doesn't have
that little give in it. Test that out
on your fabric. If you have enough cut the lengthwise grain
instead of the cross grain. Truth be told, most of the time,
I cut on the cross grain, because cutting
on the lengthwise grain takes a little bit
more fabric. Some of our samples
are small. But it doesn't matter if it's
a placemat to a king size bed you're going to use the
techniques in the same manner. We'll just show you
for the L-shaped quilt border just the basic technique
and how we like to work with it. Here's our mini-mini sample
showing a quilt top. The borders that we like to put
on first are the short ends. The reason for that is it eliminates
a lot of the piecing. For an L-shaped border the north and south ends
would go first and then
the east and west ends. We've shortened
this strip up but often,
you have to piece the fabric. Here we've used
somewhat contrasting fabric with just a slight gradation
to show you. When piecing the fabric,
what we like to do is create an L-shape
piecing technique. You overlap the pieces,
like an L and then stitch
from corner to corner. After trimming, you can see
how that diagonal line is so much better than if
you had a horizontal line. It's less noticeable. So, you've pieced and done
the north and south. then the east and west side,
putting on the border. After sewing
the remaining sides you're just going to have
that simple L-shape. It's not too difficult,
very simple. I told you, it's fearless
sewing, the L-shape border. A double border
is great. Usually,
I make the inside border or the smaller border
narrower. You can make them equal sizes,
if you'd like. But the two often
frame the piece very easily. You can pick out
a darker color from the design. It's much like
using an L-shaped border but this time,
you're going to put it on twice. On our small sample we'll show you that you do
the north and south ends the east and west ends or side to side, top to bottom,
however you'd like to call it. Then you'd add
this final border. One is good, two is better,
in this instance because then we can
add borders on both sides. I always
audition my fabrics laying the pre-cut fabrics
next to the design to make sure that these are
the colors that I'd like to see. You can see
that double borders-- I really am partial to them. They really help set off
the design that's in the middle. Granted, you're going to have
a much bigger design done than what we have
right here. The next idea that I'd like
to share with you is a flange. The flange
is itty-bitty. It's a really tiny
little insert. Because it's so little,
to get that minuscule but really nice
piping effect added you fold the fabric,
meeting wrong sides together and stitch it
to the quilt top, first of all. Let me show you
on this sample that we have. We cut
1" strips of fabric. It doesn't have to be
on the bias. It's just cut
on the cross grain or the lengthwise grain. In general,
I just do the cross grain. It's 1" wide,
pressed in half. It's very small. Then you place this edge
on the fabric and pin. Then position
the border on top. If you'd like,
you can stitch this down first and then stitch
the bigger border on top. I've stitched
this side. You can see that I've made it
a little bit wider just so
it was easier to see. That little insert
is so much easier to do than a narrow
itty-bitty border by having it folded. Let's go back
and look at this project again. I think that gives it
a very neat finish and you don't have to sew it
twice, just once. Topstitch that flanged area
into place. Then comes cornerstones. Cornerstones on our big quilt
that we have here is a block
in each corner. You can have a single border
or a double border inner border, outer border,
in the same manner. You just place a block
in this area. The best way of putting
these onto your quilt top is what I'd like
to show you next. Sew the borders on the sides,
as I mentioned the shorter ends,
first of all. Here you can see
they're pressed open. I generally always press the fabric seam allowance
to the border. Because
of the pieced seams, it will naturally
want to go that way. Now we have the top and bottom
with the borders. Again, measure the length,
plus seam allowances of the sides. Add cornerstones,
or just blocks. The block is the same set width
and length as the border. So if this is a 3" border,
you have a 3" block. Then, the borders
are stitched to the sides. Here we have it. You can see that you're
not putting a cornerstone on one border,
or on each border you're placing it
on both ends. That way, you will end up
with that nice effect as I showed you earlier. I'll get the right end
of the quilt... Here we go. Here we have a big border,
a large cornerstone. Obviously, this cornerstone
is the same width as that inner border. It really
carries things through. So, in working
with basic borders you just have to measure
the quilt, cut the strips. Make sure
you starch them first and then choose
one of these four options for your
quilting enjoyment. Framing a wall quilt is comparable to framing
an art print or a painting. The corners are mitered. Careful consideration
is given to the colors. But obviously, fabric is used
instead of wood and metal. If the term "miter"
causes you apprehension there's a fearless way
to approach the process. I'd like to share with you
my favorite tips. When working
with mitered corners cut the borders extra long. Eight inches is usually
the gauge that I use. Center the borders. You're going to center them
on each side. But before doing
any stitching on the wrong side
of the quilt top mark a 1/4" from each side,
from each corner. There's
a little blue dot that I have marked
at each of the four corners. Usually, when I put borders
onto a quilt top I sew with the borders on top,
the smallest part on top. This time, I like to sew
with the quilt top facing me so I can see
that little dot. I've already stitched two
of the four borders on from dot to dot. I locked my stitches
at this point. Then you can press I'm going to do that
a little bit later the seam allowances
toward the borders. Then cut the borders
for the side seam the side edges. Again, cut them longer
than you need. Center them
on the border-- on the fabric,
I should say. Then, we're going to sew. When I sew this,
I have a straight stitch. You have to get your fabric
out of the way meaning
what you have just sewn. I'll just place this
underneath the presser foot. I have my machine set
for a 1/4" seam allowance. Sink the needle in the fabric
and then stitch. Let the needle dance
a little bit at that spot. Just hit the button
so it's sewing in place. And stitch. In short,
the long and short of this is that the 1/4" on each corner
is not going to be sewn. As I'm reaching my other corner,
and I get to the point, I sew
a little bit slower so I can stop
right at that dot. I'm just going to
lock the stitches right at that point. Now comes
the measuring part which really
is the pressing part. We'll press all seam allowances
toward the borders. It will naturally
want to go that way. Pressing it
toward the borders. Then we'll do
some magical folding. We'll shape the borders
just the way we'd like it to be. I'm going to meet the raw edge
of the top border to its partner,
right there, and fold. Let me see if I'm getting
that corner just right. A little manipulation
has to take place right here. You'd do some pinning. Rather
than measuring I just make it look the way
I'd like it to be. After I have a nice miter,
I press. The pressing is going to be
the stitching line for you. It's a press mark,
as we so often do in quilting. I'll pin
the borders together. Then I'm able
to fold back the fabric. You'll see a line. That press mark is where
I'm going to do the sewing. I have my machine set
at a straight stitch. I'm going to
move to the middle position raise the presser foot,
and sew. You may
want to consider working with a longer stitch
length right now just to test it out in case you need
to take it out. But as I
finger press this open it's not bad. You can see that it's mitered
at that point. You'd press this open. Now, another hint if you're
working with a double border as I have
on my landscape quilt. I have this pressed. As you can see,
sometimes it's really tricky to get that point to match
when you fold back the fabric. What I've done on this sample,
is I used a zigzag stitch and stitched
down that fold. It's not
going to stay there. I would loosen the tension
on that zigzag stitch. What happens when you open
this up and you flatten it out you'll be able to straight
stitch right down the fold. I've already done that
on this sample. You can see how this
folds out flat because
I loosened the tension. You can maybe see
my straight stitch in this area. Let's see if I can find
my bobbin thread and pull out
the zigzag. As I kind of pull that out I guess it's still
stuck there a little bit. There we go. There it's stitched
and perfectly mitered I think,
at that corner. Borders can easily be an extension
of the patchwork design. Using remaining
fabric pieces be inspired to stitch
a piano keys border a scrappy
checkerboard border, or an artistic
four-patch border. As you can tell,
we're on borders, exclusively during this program of
"Fearless Quilting Techniques." These small placemat samples,
we made them just so that you would look
only at the borders and not be distracted
by what's inside. Pay special notice that the
width of these border elements will be one inch. That makes it
very easy to divide whatever you're working with
that's in the interior. For example, is your quilt
is 96" x 106" you can get it. It's all divisible
by the one-inch strips. So, let me tell you
what I mean by this. We've chosen
some fabrics. The fabrics
are just stacked here the four colors. There are actually
four on here. You can cut these
in one-inch strips. Let me get this lined up
so that I can cut the fabric. Many times, you have to
fold the fabric in half. We have fat quarters that
we're working with right now. You'd place this
over the top whether you're working
with a traditional cutting board or a cutting board that can accommodate
many strips at once. You don't
have to move it. You place the rotary cutter
in the teardrop end. Just slice down. I'm cutting
1-1/2" strips, so I'll go from 1-1/2",
to 3", to 4-1/2". I shouldn't
have moved that! Here we go. It's easier
to cut on a flat surface rather than
what I have here. Then you have
all your strips cut. We've chosen colors that
are alternating light and dark. It's not too difficult
to figure out why. On the piano keys
technique you can see that here that I've pieced together
light and dark, light and dark, then making
a four section. Then you can
subcut this again the width of the border
that you'd like. This border width
happens to be 2-1/2" so we just cut the strips
2-1/2", and subcut them. If you were making
a lot of these you could obviously
sew together many more strips so that you wouldn't
have to do so much piecing
at this time. Then just rotate
and sew together so that you have a simple
piano key looking border at the top and bottom,
north and south. Then add the same thing
to the sides. Because they're one inch,
they really work out well to fit most sizes of quilt tops
or quilt projects. You could also work with
two inches or three inches. You get the idea but this piano keys
is a nice looking border effect. Keeping in mind this same
one-inch strip of fabric that we've been using you could also
work with a checkerboard. Now, the checkerboard from the same configuration,
you can create a four patch. A four patch
is simply this. Let me show you
what they look like. You've probably made
four patches before if you've quilted. If you haven't, let me share
how they're made. You stitch a light and a dark
together, of a strip. Then cut the strip
in half. It will be
a long 45" strip. Turn it so that you have
a light going on top of a dark and a dark
going on top of a light. Line them up,
and sub-cut it again. You know, there's that bumper
sticker that says "Quilters never die,
they just go to pieces." Well, that happens when
you're working with patchwork. I'm going to cut these
an 1-1/2", and slide this over. At home,
you can maybe cut a little bit more accurately
than I'm managing right now! Then you simply
stitch these together. They come off as a pair. Take them to the machine
and stitch it together. To create this one we just made two different
four-patch configurations. A dark and then this one
is a litter bit lighter. Alternate these
as they go around. You can see, that's a fast way
of adding a border just with some
leftover fabrics. Last but not least,
we have the artistic four-patch where we've just placed
as a cornerstone a four-patch
in the corner. Then made the border
an extension of what would normally be
the next color. A little creativity
just with one-inch-wide strips to set off
whatever you have in the middle
of your quilt. Today's Nancy's Corner guest
is no stranger to our show. Usually, she sits
in the chair next to me to introduce us
to her newest book in her
"Elm Creek Quilt" series. Today, she'll present us
with synopsis from her first historical novel
outside the Elm Creek series called
"Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker." Please welcome back,
Jennifer Chiaverini a prolific author
and a great person to tell us about
an historical item that everyone's
interested in right now. Well, that's true. Everyone
is always interested in the life
of Mr. Lincoln. The heroine of this book
was a real-life woman. She had
incredible insight into the Lincoln
White House that historians
and scholars find fascinating,
even to this day. And her name
is Elizabeth. That's right, her name is
Elizabeth Keckley. She was born in 1818
in Virginia as a slave. She was a very, very skilled
seamstress however and as the years went by and she followed one owner
to another owner traveling around the South,
she made her way to St. Louis where her owner
finally said that, yes she could earn enough money
to buy her own freedom. So with her skill
and with her needle she earned enough money
to purchase her freedom and that of her son. It gives me
goose bumps! Oh, it's tremendously
fascinating. I first discovered Elizabeth
when I was researching some of my other
Elm Creek Quilts novels. Her story
just fascinated me. She had such strong will
and such talent. She made her way
to Washington, DC where she became first the dressmaker
to Mrs. Jefferson Davis and then later, she became
the dressmaker for Mary Lincoln. I have to say,
I haven't read this yet. I'm adding that caveat, because
I just received this book. You researched this
in many different places. That's right. I always
start with my research at the Wisconsin
Historical Society which is a wonderful resource a treasure trove
of history and achieves. It's very, very close
to where I live. But I also relied upon
Elizabeth Keckley's own words. In 1868,
she published a memoir talking about
her life as a slave and how
she earned her freedom. But also, giving away
a lot of secrets about her years living
in the Lincoln White House. These day,
we expect everyone to turn out
a tell-all book but in 1868,
not so. Unfortunately, this did
damage the relationship that Elizabeth and Mary Lincoln
shared for so many years. When times were good,
Lizzy and Mrs. Lincoln-- It was after the assassination
and the later on she did, by mail,
some dressmaking. That's true. But Elizabeth was more
than just her dressmaker. She was also her
close friend and confidant. Oh, sure. You might have heard
that Mary Lincoln was a little bit difficult
to get along with at times. Elizabeth was able
to not only tolerate her but also in some ways,
bring out the better side of Mary Lincoln
in many occasions. Elizabeth was there to see
Mary Lincoln through the many tragedies
she faced while she was in
the White House. The death of a child,
the death of her husband, and several scandals. When Mrs. Lincoln
left the White House upon Mr. Lincoln's
assassination Elizabeth went with her
and lived with her for a time in Illinois
before returning to Washington to continue
her dressmaking business. As you said,
their friendship continued through the mail
for many years after that until they
were reunited later. When she made clothes
for Mrs. Lincoln these were not
everyday dresses. She did take care of some items
like that but what
she's most known for and what Mary
valued her skills most for was for creating
the beautiful gowns that Mary Lincoln wore to balls, and receptions,
and inaugurations. As Elizabeth said herself
in an interview that she gave to a newspaper
when she was in her 80s her hands were the last
to touch Mrs. Lincoln before she took
the president's arm and was escorted
off to some grand occasion. Elizabeth
not only sewed her gowns but she fixed her hair
and arranged her bouquets and did all of those
extra touches, as well. Well, Jennifer,
this is a read that I'm looking forward
to having very soon. I'm sure those of you
who are fans of Jennifer through
the Elm Creek series will find this
equally as enchanting. I certainly hope so. I loved writing it
and doing all the research. I hope my readers enjoy reading
it as much as I did writing it. With that attitude,
I know they will. Thank you
for being with us. It was my pleasure. Thank you for joining us
on this program of Sewing with Nancy. You can find out
more information about Jennifer
and her Elm Creek series plus Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker
on our website. Go to NancyZieman.com. All things Sewing with Nancy
are there. We will definitely direct you
in the right direction. If you'd like to
re-watch this program you can always re-watch
52 of our shows are online. Just click and watch and join us
with social media, as well. As I say with every show,
thanks for joining me. Bye for now. Nancy has written
a fully-illustrated book entitled
"Fearless Quilting Finishes" that includes
all the information from this
three-part series. It's $14.99,
plus shipping and handling. To order the book,
call 1-800-336-8373 or visit our website at:
sewingwithnancy.com/2703. Order item BK2703
"Fearless Quilting Finishes." Credit card orders only. To pay by check
or money order call the number on the screen
for details. Visit Nancy's website
at NancyZieman.com to see additional episodes,
Nancy's blog, and more. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing
sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman
has been brought to you by: Baby Lock, Madeira threads, Koala Studios, Clover, Fuller Brush Vacuums, Amazing Designs,
and Klassé Needles. Closed captioning funding
provided by Riley Blake Designs. Sewing with Nancy
is a co-production of Nancy Zieman Productions
and Wisconsin Public Television.
