Page 29 - MyMomHadAQuiltLikeThat

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Piecing

Piecing is the joining of parts of a quilt. Piecing includes joining
pieces into a pattern to make a quilt block, and to joining blocks
together to make a quilt top. Geometric patterns have been pieced
by machine for over 100 years. Curved pieces are still being done
most carefully by hand. Besides piecing, some quilts have decorative
pieces sewed to the top of a quilt block, or to a white quilt top: they
are appliqués. Both piecing and appliqué appear widely in American
quilts from the past 150 years.
A common technique for finishing the seams of quilt blocks or the
edges of appliques involves covering the edge of the applique or the
seam line of pieced quilts with decorative embroidery stitches called
“turkey tracks.”

Edging

The edges of quilts are finished, not left raw or open. Simple edges
are made by turning part of the top fabric to the back, or part of the
back fabric to the front. If front and back are joined at the edge with
no overlap of front to back or back to front, that is called a “knife
edge” finish. Since about the 1990s, quilts that look like American
patchwork quilts have been imported from China. One clue to the
Chinese quilt is its knife edge.
Often the edge of a quilt is finished with a commercially produced
tape that covers the front and back in a ribbon half an inch or so
wide. Edges can also be finished with a home-made tape that is
cut from fabric on the bias, diagonally across the weave of a fabric.
Bias tape tends to roll its raw edges under, so is convenient to use
in making an edging. Probably most frequently, a tape is stitched by
machine to the quilt on one side, then brought to the other side and
secured by hand. That’s easier to do than to try to stitch by machine
so evenly that the seamstress can sew front and back in a single seam,
and looks neater than having two lines of machine stitching running
through the quilt.
Edges are the most vulnerable part of the quilt to sustain wear
and tear. Purists might want to leave an old quilt with its edges in
a worn state. I have preferred to add new edging over old. Thus, if
somebody wants the old to show, the new edging on my quilts can
Figure 12: Prairie points edge from
be easily removed. However, I suspect that the original maker of a "Pineapple Log Cabin," Figure 278, Page
quilt would want her artwork to be restored to its original beautiful 319
condition. Some people would trim the old edging off. I would
advise against that as altering the antique nature of a quilt too much.