This is Darling Harbour, early on a cold winter morning, on the first day of the quilt show. I'm enjoying the colder weather so far.

The first three days of the show have flown by, and we have been busy. We met up with lots of friends that we see only at these events, so there was a lot to catch up on. Then there is the shopping and looking at the quilts themselves, and coffee with more friends.

We were sitting with 9 of our mates when someone tapped Mereth on the shoulder and said ‘Would you be Mereth or Keryn?’ It was ChookyBlue, who is a blogfriend that we have never met before, so we had a big chat and arranged to meet the next day and spend time together. Our other friends were suitably freaked out that a total stranger had recognised us and introduced herself. Which is really odd, seeing we all met on an email list about 7 years ago!

This afternoon our friends Laurie and Brenda took us out to the famous Patchwork Products in Rydalmere. This shop is set up in a garage behind a normal suburban house, and has fantastic fabric deals. There is a big ginger tabby cat to welcome the shoppers, and floor to ceiling stacks of delicious fabrics. We always have a lovely time rummaging through everything and choosing armfuls of material, for about half the amount it would normally cost. We were quite restrained this time, but it’s still a decent haul. Brenda thinks it’s so amusing to watch us country kids go crazy in the candy store.

On the way back to the convention centre we stopped at QuiltSmith, another lovely shop, jam-packed with the sort of reproduction fabrics that are our favourite. OMG! We could have spent hours there, it was so wonderful. Even Brenda was tempted to buy a morsel or two. We were delivered back to the hotel in a very happy mood.

My purchases today included a wonderful book about Chinese artifacts, that was being thown out for $4.95. The images in it are amazing, and I would love to interpret some of them in fabric. It sounds silly, but the idea of cutting my fabric up holus-bolus into strange shaped pieces has stopped me from ever attempting a pictorial quilt. I need to loosen up my attitude and take the scissors to the cloth and just do it. Maybe this is the year to try out new styles and techniques and expand my skills.

While I’m working the Statler it’s interesting to hear the comments as people go past. I often hear “That’s cheating!”, to which I reply, ‘No, that’s Evolution” I’m sure our great-grandmothers would have been truly fascinated to see where quilting has gone in the last hundred years. There are lots of teenagers attending the show on school excursions, and even the boys are amazed at the computerised machines. These kids are the ones who will carry on our craft, and I just wonder where it will go in their hands.

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Some projects just seem to snowball, and end up much more complicated than they were at the start. Kaye's quilt, nicknamed The Big Brown Bugger, is such a project. It started as a pile of pieces that Mereth could sew together to keep her occupied. Along the way we did the Maths and realised that the tiny bundle of squares and triangles would end up measuring 82" when pieced together. Then there were the borders, another 20". It's HUGE!

Kaye asked me to choose a panto to put over it, and I, being temporarily insane, decided to design something specially for the quilt. I spent a day playing, starting off with a scrap of fabric that featured a stylised pomegranete. Somehow a bird holding a berry in his beak crept into the design, and then his ladylove on a nest. I joked that the birds were Bruce and Kaye, and the pomegranete a symbol of fertility, and the ribald jokes began. Honestly! It doesn't bear repeating. It all just snowballed out of control.

The photo is of the design being stitched out as a test run, and then I decided what worked and what didn't. I redrew what I thought didn't work, and the quilt was loaded onto the biggest machine and quilted in two long sessions.

Then this morning a team of helpers went to work applying the binding and hand stitching it down. The photo is Mereth, Dale and I stitching on a side each; it took a surprisingly short time to stitch down 408" of binding. Many hands make light work. Then the quilt was hung for a picture shoot, and whisked off into the truck to go off to the Sydney show.



We will be leaving in a few hours time, and blogging will resume when we get sorted out at the hotel.

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Much sewing was done today, and the king-size quilt top is nearly finished. I have been running around cutting pieces and making coffee, pressing seams, fetching and carrying for Mereth, while she stitches steadily away and reduces the pile of pieces by the machine. She's quite bossy too, but I'm letting her get away with it because she's doing such a great job. This quilt is due to go on the machine tomorrow, not that there's any pressure on us or anything! It will be quilted with an ornate panto and hung in the booth at the show.

We ran off to the LQS to get more fabric for the setting squares, and I bought a few FQs and two remnants that Mereth was kind enough to point out to me. We are waiting till we get to the show before we do any serious shopping, there will be lots to choose from and we don't want to exhaust our finances too soon. We have been there, and done that!

This is the quilt that is on my bed here, and I am so in love with it that I want to start my own version straight away. This is a copy of an antique quilt, and Kaye chose all the fabrics herself; they look so beautiful together. The fabrics are divine, and I have lots of them already, so I could shop the stash for this one. I don't have anything remotely like the pillar print in the border, I will have to look out for something equally striking.

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We are happily installed in the workshop at Camden, surrounded by Statlers and sewing machines and quilts piled head high on the tables. I am digitising patterns, and Mereth has finished piecing 56 blocks for a quilt for our hostess Kaye. I have to admit that I am impressed by Mereth's piecing speed; everytime I look over there are another 4 or 5 blocks finished. She's like Lightning! And sooo organised. All I have to do is keep the coffee coming.....

It's freezing cold, which I haven't got sick of yet, and raining quite steadily. The last time I was here the country was burnt brown, and now it's much greener and flourishing and the smaller dams are full. Everyone is very thankful, but we still need lots more rain.

Kaye subscribes to several reproduction fabric clubs, and we are filled with envy over her stash. It's the stuff of dreams, what we all aspire to. And she actually makes quilts and finishes them, along with all the quilting she does for other people. I want to be like her when I grow up! The place is buzzing with activity as the preparations for the Sydney show get underway, and there are several quilts a day rolling off the two Statlers.

The only place where we can get mobile phone coverage here is up the hill in the tiny colonial era cemetary. We walk briskly up there each afternoon to check in with the outside world, and spend a few minutes reading the headstones and admiring the carved flowers and inscriptions. It's very meditative.

DD brought back the Harry Potter books, so I will be reading them in preparation for the release of the 7th and final instalment. Like Tonya's DH I read those books continuously, almost compulsively.... Whenever I go to the gym, Harry goes with me. I credit my new fitness entirely to him and his adventures, because I won't allow myself to read unless I'm at the gym or home on the treadmill. And I just love to read, so I gotta exercise. DD also prepaid for my copy of the new Harry Potter, as a birthday present, which was sweet of her. Especially as I prepaid her copy as HER birthday present. Bit silly, but it's the thought that counts.

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I should never announce my plans for the weekend, because then I never achieve what I wanted to do. It's a fact of life. The quilt I wanted to work on is still in pieces on the design wall, because of an unexpected visit from my DD. She lives in a little town about 3 hours away, and it's much colder there, so she came into town to stock up on winter clothes. She makes me laugh, she can stretch a dollar further than me when it comes to clothes shopping. She has a talent for bargain finding. It's a gift that she likes to cultivate.

She went through my pile of quilts and chose 4 to take home with her, including this one, shown on the Statler being quilted a few years ago. It's foundation pieced and is much the same as my Irish Star, just tweaked a little to give stars instead of spirals. Even though it was quilted so long ago it still didn't have a binding, so that's what I had to do today. It's another mammoth quilt, I must have been insane to make quilts that big. I think I've learnt my lesson for a while.

After the quilt was bound we made 3 sets of curtains for her flat. It warmed my heart to see her sewing with such concentration and care. She has never been one to do anything slowly. She once ran right through a glass door, and she was going so fast that only her heel was cut as the glass fell like a curtain behind her!

Her first attempt at machine sewing was when she was 7, while I was away at a retreat. It resulted in her stitching right through her finger and a trip to the X-ray department to track down the bits of broken needle. She told me all this breathlessly, with great enjoyment, when I rang to see if they missed me. I could hear DH in the background hissing 'Don't tell her that!!!' And he said the same thing when she informed me that they had had a bag of chips for dinner....

There were various incidents with other sewing projects, all done at a million miles an hour. She was allowed to sew on my old Bernina, but hated it because she leans way too close to the machine, and the bit that carries the thread and goes up and down used to smack her on the head. My Janome 7000 has this bit enclosed, so I gave it to her to take home. Along with many instructions on the care and feeding of my beloved machine. We will wait to see if she turns into a quilter......

I would post a photo of her, but she was horrified the last time I did that, so I'd better not freak her out again. But how dumb of me not to take a photo of the newly bound quilt, because I've just discovered that I don't have any of it except the one shown. I am going out to visit her in August, so I will make sure I photograph it then.

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In lieu of a real post....
7 things you probably don't know about me:

1. I have an Associate Diploma of Animal Husbandry. I can weld and have a tractor license. I was electrocuted in a piggery, but lived to tell the tale with only a half inch hole burnt in my hand.Me and a friend, circa 1983

2. I have been riding bikes since I was 15. I started out with my brother's Honda 70, went to a 125, then a Yamaha RD250 and finally a Honda400. I would love to own a Moto Guzzi one day, before I get too old to enjoy being a larrikin.

3. I was in the RAAF, (Royal Australian Air Force), as was my father and father-in-law.

4. Until I was 23 I could do a handstand and put my toes on my nose. The last time I did it as a party trick, and thought that maybe I shouldn't.......not being a 12 year old gymnast anymore. And I was decently clothed in jeans and all, it's not like I'd do it in a dress or anything!

5. I don't like ice-cream, and I'm not over fussed on chocolate either, unless it's dark and 70% cocoa. Give me curry, or antipasto any day. Believe me, plenty of things are giving me curry lately!

6. My reading speed is 460 words a minute, with 100% comprehension. I was tested in the Air Force. I love those IQ and skill tests, I'm very good at them. Pity I couldn't make a living just taking the tests....

7. When I was 18 I broke my coccyx falling off a horse , and had to get back on and ride 7 miles home. Ouch!! Thank God for Western saddles, with pommels and knee-pads. The worst thing was waiting at the traffic lights on the way through town; not nice to be riding a horse in traffic when you're not completely in control.

Normal blogging will resume on the weekend, when I finish the quilt that is in pieces on the design wall. It has been made in the moments between stoking the copier with paper and collating packs for orders before I go away. I'm amazed that I have managed to get so much done in such a scattered way. I much prefer to sew uninterrupted, but that won't be happening for quite a while.

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I have been trying to update my website with a tutorial on how I pin-baste quilts on the kitchen table, but it is taking forever so I will do it as a blog entry and let you know when it's available on my website as a .pdf. I made a special effort last week to baste my Roman Stripe quilt, but I haven't been able to take a single stitch so far, which is frustrating. Maybe this weekend will see some quilting being done.

First step is to mark the centre of each side of the table with a toothpick taped in place. This helps keep all the layers centred, so there are no nasty surprises like running out of backing or batting when you shift the quilt

Next step is to remove the cats from the backing!I fold the backing into quarters with the right side out, so that I can lay it on the table with the folds lined up with the toothpicks. When it's unfolded it is already centred on the table.

The backing is clamped in place with bulldog clips; don't know what they are called in America. Make sure they are easy to open with one hand; you don't want to have to use both hands to get them open, because then you can't control the quilt layers.
I clamp each side with three or four clamps; I like to control that backing. It shouldn't be stretched tight, just held firmly and without any distortion. If the quilt is small, and doesn't reach all the way to the edge I tape any edges to the table with wide packing tape.

The batting is folded into quarters and positioned over the backing, lining up with the toothpicks too. You will be able to feel them, even if you can't see them. Then the same thing happens with the quilt top.
Most people I know leave it at this stage and start pinning, but that's asking for pleats and puckers.I place a clamp on one side, over all three layers. Then I take one clamp off the backing and replace it on top, over all three layers. I work my way round the table clamping every side the same way; stabilise with one clamp on top, then bring all the clamps up from underneath. This way the backing is never left to do it's own thing and create a problem pleat. The top is held in place, and you can take your time pinning, secure in the knowledge that none of those layers are going anywhere.

It makes my heart glad to see a quilt at this stage. The fun part is not far away.
Remove any cats that have migrated back onto the table.
I like to pin to a pattern. Once I have decided to place 8 pins per block there are no more decisions to make, and I can just go full steam ahead, placing the pins but not doing them up yet. I leave that until all the pins are in place, then go back and do them all up at once, using a Kwik-Clip tool. It's wonderful. The bowl of a teaspoon or a crochet hook also works to pry the point of the pin off the quilt while you close it, but I love my Kwik-Clip. It's very kind to the fingers. I place pins so that I can't put my fist on the quilt anywhere without touching a pin.

When you have pinned everything you can see on the table it's time to shift the layers. I position the quilt sandwich so that I will be able to catch the edge of the top in the clamps at the side of the table, which helps tension the top slightly as you pin. Once you have it in the right place, place clamps on the other side of the table to hold the quilt steady.

The most important thing is to separate the layers at this stage, so you can make sure that the backing is pulled out flat and firm. That's the only trick. Clamp the backing, lay over the batting and the top and repeat the clamping process again, one clamp to hold everything, then gradualy shift all the clamps.
See how the edge of the top is caught in the clamps at the sides?

Two hours later, and the quilt is ready to be quilted. And I did it without hurting my back or my knees or my patience. I know I have a big table, but I usually pin on a table that is 3' x 4'. I have to shift the quilt several times, but so long as I make sure those layers are in the right place then there isn't a problem.

One thing does amaze me. People in machine quilting classes often complain that their quilts have puckers and pleats on the back and mine don't. They want to know my 'secret'. When I tell them this process they are horrified! That's so much work! Well it's not really, and the results are worth it.

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Hmmm. It's one of those days. I have watched Explorer crash my computer 5 times this morning, and on several occasions gone off in a huff to pack the dishwasher, do two loads of laundry, fling some old clothes to Goodwill, water the garden and brush the cat. I also watered another cat, hidden behind a potplant, but I honestly didn't mean to do that. I will not be forgiven today.

My computer needs to be revamped, and I just don't want to tackle it while I have so much work to do. However, the work would go more easily if the computer was running more efficiently. Do I meddle with it? Or just plod through the work, like walking in treacle, grimly putting up with the freezes and crashes and the dreaded bluescreen. I have ordered more memory, and I will reinstall Windows, but please, not now!

I am also trying to take some photos for another online tutorial, but I keep getting interrupted at that too. But 5 minutes here and there will see it done. Is this a backing being prepared? More later.

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One problem of having a twin who thinks exactly as you do is that it's difficult to buy presents for each other. One year I bought Mereth a fantastic book for Christmas, that I knew she would love. I couldn't resist gloating to her on the phone about how much she was going to enjoy her present from me. She assured me that I would love her gift more. This went on for a while, and we admitted to each other that both presents were books, then a horrid suspicion began to form. We both ran off and got our books, and I read out the first sentence, and they were the same book! So we saved on postage and wrapped them up and put them under our own Christmas tree. That has happened three times.

Just recently I saw a fantastic book on textile design on Fiona's blog, and promptly ordered it for myself on Amazon. When it arrived I rang Mereth and raved about it, saying she had to have her own copy. She was Furious with me! She had bought a second hand copy and it was waiting to be posted to me as a birthday present. Sheesh! Like I knew? So we each have our own copy, though hers is hard-cover and seeing she bought it for me as a present then maybe we could swap and she can have the soft-cover.... But that would be petty, wouldn't it?



I adore this book; there is so much inspiration in it for designs and quilts and colour schemes. I do love my reference library. I almost never read fiction any more, except for Harry Potter and Tolkien. I love autobiographies, history and resource books that get me thinking along new lines.

These birds would make lovely applique designs, and the colours are so rich and sumptuous. Things like this inspire me to look at my fabric stash with a new eye, and to combine colours in ways I wouldn't ordinarily do.

One of Mereth's interest is ornithology, and bird illustration. How many of you have kept a dead Avocet in your freezer while you made proportionally correct sketches over several days? I know I haven't! Last week I found a lovely book on bird illustration and I bought it for her, but I made a point of telling her so she won't buy it for herself before I can post it to her.

I have to go to the hairdresser soon, to get a cut and colour so I can look presentable at the Sydney quilt show next month. I have a dreadful time with hairsalons, as does Meggie. I have felt the depths of despair watching my hair being tarted around by well-meaning girls and boys, confident that they can be the ones to take control. But my hair is all passive resistance. Even as they stand back to survey their work it starts stubbornly curling back to wherever it wants to be. And that's not a good thing. "Have you tried 'product'?" one woman asked disbelievingly, unable to comprehend that my hair will not be controlled. But I don't have the time or lifestyle where I want to slather my head in 'product' and blowdry it into an edifice and then live in dread of rain or humidity. Not me.

My last haircut, before my FIL's funeral, left me looking like a Viking warrior in a horned helmet. The hairdresser, having cut it so badly, only charged me $5. Amazingly, the day of the funeral it looked fine, but has misbehaved and given me demonic horns almost every day since. And now it has almost grown long enough to lie down flat, and I have to go back and get it cut again.

So this is what I usually look like when I get out of the hairsalon, right down to that expression. Guess I'll go and eat worms.....

It's a Hoopoe, if you're interested.

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Looks like Mereth was spotted by fellow quilters and bloggers at the Perth Show. It's such a small world. Hi Nicola, hi Kathy!

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I needed a break from the computer, so I hopped in the car and drove a few miles out of town to a plant nursery. We have been going there for the last 22 years and it's hardly changed a bit. I love walking among the corridors of plants and dreaming of what I could do with a bigger block of land. Palms. fruit trees, flowering shrubs, hibiscus, more herbs, and of course the roses! The air was heavy with their perfume, it was a lovely interlude. And I was sensible and bought nothing, but I truly hate being sensible sometimes. I think I'm going to go back and get myself a rose; it's less than the price of a bunch of flowers, and will give me a whole lot more pleasure as I watch it grow, even if I have to grow it in a pot.

The palms make fascinating patterns of light and shade. I loved the basket weave effect of the new fronds emerging. So much inspiration all around.

I have a thing for Hawaii print fabric. In the 60s my oldest brother had a silk shirt printed with rolling surf, palm trees and dusky maidens, and I thought it was sooo elegant. I was 6 years old! What did I know? I badgered my family for years to let me buy them Hawaiin shirts. They wouldn't, spoilsports.

I have loads of fabric, in the most amazing colourways, of island-themed images. I have been collecting it for years, for something I call my Escape Quilt. I imagine it will be a Ruth MacDowell type quilt, with a bit of patchwork and and a panel of scenery. I don't feel any pressure to actually make it just yet, I'm still collecting ideas and thoughts.

It's not that I want to live on a tropical island; I've had enough of the tropics with it's humidity and bugs and endless summer. It's just the Idea of escaping, if you know what I mean, and being separated from the workaday life. Would you have to do dishes or vaccuum on a tropical island?

I also loved those old Hollywood movies set on tropical islands, which is probably where I got all the imagery from in the first place. Of course they were in black and white, and I was pleased to find this monotone print at an op-shop.

My Dad flew bombers in the Islands during the war, and his photos were fascinating to us kids. And I have all Thor Heyerdahl's books on his Pacific Island expeditions.

Just don't ask me to go there!

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No sewing, no sleeping, much computer work being done. Nothing blogworthy to report. I haven't even unlocked the door to my sewing room in 5 days, that's dreadful! I will have to go down today and breathe fabric fumes for a while, to restore my equilibrium.

My spare room is covered with stuff that I'm selling on Ebay, which is adding to the stress and confusion, but I think I have a system worked out and things are progressing. I have sold most of my vintage stash now, which might cause me a pang of suffering if not for the fact that I never used a bit of it. I was just the caretaker, and I decided to let other enthusiasts enjoy the bounty. I'm awfully good at preserving things that need to be rescued, but then I never do anything with them, or I get snowed under with stuff. So I'm liberating myself.

I used to visit op-shops a lot, picking up vintage fabric and laces and clothing. I had a marvellous hat collection, real monstrosities that women of my Mum's era considered essential for the well-bred woman. But when I sold my quilt cottage it all had to go. This pink crimplene one is the only one I kept; it's like a piece of sculpture! I keep repeating "I am not a Museum, I am NOT a Museum!" Ebay is the perfect solution. I rescue things of worth when I see them, and pass them on to people who are still in that acquisition phase.

Mind you, there are some things that I'm holding on to for a little longer. Like 3 metres of paisley fabric that is the same as a dress I made when I was 13. I adored the dress, but it was passed on to one of the cousins. We have at least 22 cousins, (would need to check the family tree for the exact number!) and there was a constant stream of possessions being passed down the line; Mum was a champion recycler, long before it was trendy. Now I wonder if I will ever make myself another dress out of that material? I certainly have enough fabric in this piece...

My most treasured vintage piece, that Ebay will never see? This rose fabric of Mum's, bought before the reality of having three children under 4 years of age dictated that there be no more sewing of her own clothes. I know the exact sort of dress she was planning, with a huge pleated skirt to show off her tiny waist, and a petticoat to make the skirt stand out even more. Maybe a couple of little buttoned tabs on the bodice for decoration, some little designer touch of the sort that she was so good at. But it never happened, and I lusted after this fabric in her stash every time I saw it. She gave it to me about 15 years ago, and I still adore it.

Quilty stuff? Nothing! Thing that pleases me greatly? My salad veggies thriving in the autumn sunshine on the deck. We have had three meals from this lot already, and the spring onions are a couple of weeks away from harvesting size. I even have more seedlings started so that there will always be a steady supply. I love spring onions....

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I finished my Single Irish Chain today, and it is now residing on the bed and looking wonderful. It's even bigger than the Red Elephant quilt, it took 10 binding strips and I've never had to use that many before. It took forever to stitch the binding on, I kept running upstairs to do some more work, then back down again to sew another side. I'm sure there were 5 sides on this thing, it was never-ending.

But I'm so pleased with how it turned out, and it gives the room a new look. The Red Elephant quilt that normally lives on the bed will be folded on the quilt rack for a while, so it can have a rest.

I think our bedroom looks rather nice now, can't think of anything else to add to it, except maybe to hang some pictures on the walls. If there were more space I would have a chair and a bookshelf so I could read in comfort; I don't like reading in bed for some reason. I also loathe the whole 'breakfast-in-bed' ritual, I don't think I have ever volunteered for that. If I'm awake then I want to be up and doing stuff, not balancing plates and coffee cups and dropping toast crumbs where I don't want them.

However, I have always loved the idea of bed-jackets, like the one pictured. Perfect for lounging in bed reading and sipping tea, surely? I like to imagine that there was once a more leisurely life, where you could wear a lovely satin nightgown and a gorgeous knitted bed-jacket until bedtime, and relax and knit and dream by the fire. I love looking through all the old knitting books from the 40s and 50s, but bed-jackets always make me want to pick up the needles and the 2 ply wool....

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I'm in a quilting mood, so I dragged out one of the projects I'm part-way through and spent a day marking the quilting lines for the next step. Of course I had help. I know I should be very cross with Bob for beating up on my quilt, but he's just so funny all I can do is pick up the camera and laugh. He's such a staid gentleman normally, it's hysterical to see Bad Bob in action. It's like watching a cart-horse gambol about in the paddock, very ponderous and unexpected.

Oh he had help too, a partner in crime, but she's behind the quilt giving him cheek and pushing his buttons. I'm not nearly as tolerant of Squeak...

This quilt is Enormous, another huge one. I obviously went through a BIG phase, and I'm still dealing with finishing the monsters. It does look nice on the bed though, and seeing as Wimbledon is coming up I may just hand quilt the blocks in this while I watch my tennis. Just a simple outline, and maybe a motif in the square. Only 61 blocks, wouldn't take long... All the blocks are already ditch-stitched, and the sashing quilted with double lines.

If I can get the borders quilted before then I would be happy, I could manhandle the thing in the hoop without any of the layers shifting then. It's definitely a Plan.

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Time keeps running away from me, and I just can't keep up! I have actually had some things to blog about lately, but simply no time to edit photos and post them. I seem to have caught up today though, and I'm going to get busy on some personal projects in amongst the work stuff. That's the plan anyway.

I had to do a demonstration lecture on borders at the local quilt shop, and decided I needed to throw some blocks together so I could demo a mitred corner. Mereth could come up with 20 sets of blocks to put together at a moment's notice, but I don't tend to make completed sets like she does. If I complete all the blocks I put them into a quilt straight away, but I rarely do finish all of them. I usually lose interest after 4 or 5....

I had 22 blocks of a Many Trips Around The World that I was making for our bed, and made the executive decision to make a smaller quilt instead. (Pattern by Bonnie, over at Quiltville...) One UFO finished, a small quilt completed, more time to move onto the next project; it made perfect sense. Still does. The colours are way off in the photo of the whole quilt, they are like the smaller photo. It's nice and rich and intense, and quite big enough for the spare bed thank you!

And just to make this instructive, photos of how I do a mitred corner. I use a folded mitre, not a seamed one. I don't bother to measure 45 degrees on the border strips, because if the pieced centre isn't a perfect 90 degree angle then the 45 degree mitre won't fit it anyway. Often if you square the piecing up to 90 degrees you chop off points of triangles and lose seam allowances. None of which is necessary because all you need is a diagonal join, not a perfect 45 degree angle.

(Somebody please tell me the shortcut key for a degree symbol! Please!)

I sew my border strips on as usual, stopping the seam 1/4" away from the edge of the pieced top, so that I don't obstruct the seam allowance of the adjacent side. I back stitch for two or three stitches to secure the ends so that it won't come apart when I manipulate the strips in the next step. Then I lay the top on a large surface, like a table, padded with a towel, so I can iron on it. The surface needs to be large so you can lay out the top, one corner at a time, and make sure the corner is flat and the borders are laying right.
I make sure the pieced area is perfectly flat on the table, then fold one strip back at an angle roughly how I want it. Then I make sure that both borders are not stretched out or bent in or anything. Once it's lying nicely I fine tune that fold, matching seam lines between the pieced section and the very edge of the border. A pin through all the important points will hold it in place while you gently give it a press with the iron. No moving the iron back and forth, or you will disturb the placement.Next I pin the layers together, with the pin heads facing towards the outer border.And then I run a tacking stitch along the folded edge using the machine set on a long stitch.
The final step is to slip-stitch the fold to the fabric underneath, keeping the stitches small and unobtrusive. I tend to use a normal applique stitch for this, and if I'm being fastidious I may even change thread colour for the different fabrics, but it would have to be a special quilt to make me do that. I usually choose a thread that will match most colours, and be extra careful to hide the stitches if the thread wants to show up.

I trim the seam to about 3/8", remove the tacking thread and it's finished.
Folding the mitre made short work of this heavily pieced border on my Roman Stripe quilt from last year. This would have been nasty to do as a seam, with all those seam allowances going the same way. The whole quilt is in the post for September 23, 2006, if you want to see it again.
I can't be bothered going to the extra effort of sewing this seam on the machine, getting it wrong, unpicking it, trying again etc. I do folded mitres on all my quilts, and if I didn't tell people, they'd mostly never pick it.

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