How to Sew a Traditional or Knife Edge

Apologies for not posting last week - but my computer was "ill" and had to go off to Bill, the PC Doctor in Felixstowe, where it was tidied up generally. Much got put onto the external hard drive that my son Tom bought me - and Bill also loaded a graphics programme. Once the two quilts are finished I should have fun with that.

I recently bought Havig's Classic English Medallion Style Quilts. Something bothered me - it took a while to realise what it was - all the quilts in the book had Bindings. Now if you have looked at the antique quilts on this blog you will know that British quilts nearly always have a knife edge. No where in that book is any information on the traditional knife edge. The quilts just don't look right to my eye - the binding immediately marks them out as not British.

So here are some photos of how to make the knife edge - not difficult, but very neat looking - and- no extra fabric is needed.

My whole cloth quilts are carefully pre-marked - and usually have a line around the edge of the quilt. First, sew along this line - being careful to turn the corner neatly. Use your walking foot.

Next, trim off extra fabric and wadding - I trimmed it down to an inch beyond the sewn line - 1/4" fabric turn under leaving a 3/4" edge. Use your rotary ruler and take your time. Measure twice and cut once....

Next, I bent the fabric back and trimmed the extra wadding away with scissors- here, about 1/4". You don't have to be too careful about this as any extra can be pushed in during the next stage. But do be careful not to cut into the front or back of the quilt.

Then, using the ruler again, I turned under 1/4" of the top fabric to leave an edge of 3/4" - pin in place carefully.

Turn to the back and using the same pin turn under the back to match the front and pin again.

Judging from my antique quilts this next step is not entirely necessary, but it does make a nice edge - using a whip stitch neatly sew back and front together. Take special care at the corners to make a neat job.

Again this step is not de rigeur - many of my quilts have only one line of machine stitching. However, with my first wholecloth quilt one of the FOQ judges said that the edge was "too puffy" so since then I have always added a second or even third line of stitching. This makes the edge neat looking and firm. Darn in any thread tails.

The finished edge to the quilt - a traditional knife or butt edge.