The Quilt with Tailored Corners

I count myself lucky because my mom is my quilting buddy. Kind of like having a tiny ready-made quilt guild at home. She has her projects, I have my projects, and then we have our projects. Yep, the sewing room is an interesting place in our house.

This king-size blue and yellow quilt with tailored corners was our very first collaboration. Quilting together is both fun and challenging because our styles are very different. My mom prefers making more color controlled, formal quilts, and me..., well I'm a scrappy quilter at heart. So we compromised. The quilt would be blue and yellow--color controlled--but we could use different blues and yellows in each block. I think the formula was very effective.

Being king-size posed some problems for us. First and foremost was that there was simply no way we were going to be able to get a king-sized bedspread through our little Kenmore when it came time to quilt it. So we decided to make it in four separate pieces: the top, the two sides, and the bottom.

With this decision came the realization that we could make the quilt with tailored corners. We'd both admired comforters made with tailored corners in a hotel where we once stayed, and liked how it kept the large comforters in place on the beds. So since we were making the quilt in pieces anyway, we decided to give it a shot.

Here's how we did it:

1. Construct quilt top, 2 sides, and bottom side.
2. Sandwich and quilt all four pieces separately. Leave ample backing extended beyond each piece.
3. Prepare to seam together the top and one side, by leaving ample backing on one piece and trimming the backing flush with the batting and top on the other piece.
4. With right sides together seam the top and the side.
5. Using the extra backing, fold under the raw edge, then whip it down over the raw seam on the back of the quilt.
6. Repeat with the other side and the bottom side.
7. Voila! :-)