Tutorial: Fast Finish Triangles

(Or how to do that thing I always forget to do until it is almost too late.)

Mini quilts can be very useful as mug rugs, coasters or as my friend Miss A says, "modern doilies".  But some of them are just too pretty to use to soak up your diet soda and cookie crumbs.  Those should hang on the wall.  AAQI recommends putting fast finish triangles on the back of art quilts submitted for their auction.  It is a simple matter to add them to your quilt... if you remember in time.

  A small piece of binding can be used to make them. 

 Square off the end of the binding.  Fold it up at 90 degrees to make a triangle. 

 Cut the binding along the edge of the folded piece.

 Leaving you with a right triangle with the fold on the long side and the raw edges on the short sides.

 Place the triangle with the raw edges toward the edge of your quilt.  Make sure you are placing them on the upper corners of your quilt so that it will hang right side up.  (Don't ask.)

Now if you are organized and thinking ahead, you will flip your quilt to the front and stitch on the binding using whatever cool tricks you use to attach it.  Your Fast Finish Triangle will be sew in with the quarter inch seam and you can finish your quilt as usual. 

If, however, you can never remember to put the triangles on at all, let alone before you stitch on the binding, never fear.  All is not lost.  Make you triangles as above.  Position them on the back and sew them on.  Just be sure to use a smaller seam allowance than your binding.

  Oh, and make sure that the little fold that flips over to the back to finish your corner is up and out of the way so that you don't stitch it down with FFT.  (Again, don't ask.)

No matter which way you add the triangles, once they and the binding are stitched securely, you simply finish the binding as you usually would.  I imagine if you are a supremely confident sewist, you can hand stitch the triangles in after the fact.  But them if you are a supremely confident sewist you probably thought to include them in the first round.

To hang your wee quilt using the FFT's you simply tuck a small stick, or straw or pencil into each pocket and rest the stick on you nail or hanger or push pin.  Ta. Da.  Easy to hang quilt.