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Basic Piping–For a 1/4" Wide Flat Piping
Measure each side of your quilt. From the piping fabric, cut 1"-wide strips from selvedge to selvedge. Sewing diagonal seams, join the number needed to make four strips, one for each side of the quilt. Fold each strip in half along the length, wrong sides together, and press. Aligning raw edges, baste the piping 3/16" in from the edge of the quilt along one side. Trim the piping if necessary to make it even with the ends of the quilt.
Stitch piping to all four sides, overlapping the piping at each corner.
Now you're ready to bind your quilt as usual. Before sewing on the binding, lay it around the quilt to see if any of the diagonal seams fall near the corners. Adjust placement if needed and then sew the binding to the quilt with 1/4" seams. Turn the binding to the back of the quilt and blindstitch as usual.
Variations on a Seam
Narrow Piping–For a Thin Line of Color
Follow the instructions for basic piping but start with 3/4"-wide strips. The result will be a 1/8"-wide line of flat piping that peeks out from the binding.
Rickrack–For a Dainty Scalloped Accent
Using medium-width rickrack (about 1/2"-wide), align points with the raw edges of the quilt, adjusting the rickrack so both ends angle into the corners. Baste 3/16" from the edges. In each corner, overlap the ends of adjacent rickrack in the seam allowance. Trim rickrack ends and then bind as usual.
Jumbo Rickrack–For a Bold, Chunky Trim
Because of the depth of the zigzags in jumbo rickrack, you'll need to position the points 1/8" off the edge of your quilt to avoid specks of the quilt top showing between the rickrack and binding. Then follow the directions above.
Other Frippery–Your Choice
Follow the basic instructions to add any flat trim, such as lace, picot or ribbon. Before sewing a trim around your quilt, make a sample, including a corner, to see the effect. You can show more or less of a trimming by adjusting its placement along the quilt's edge.
Add one of these snazzy adornments or invent your own variation to finish your next quilt in high style.
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Want to add pizzazz to the edge of a quilt? Here's an easy technique with four variations to create a grand finale. 