The above quilt, “Mission Beach” 1995, photographed against black, is one of quite a number of irregular shaped works from my Colour Memory series – click on the drop down gallery menu at the top of this page. 

Recently discussion on the Quiltart and the SAQA lists I read came around to edging issues again.  Rarely do makers of traditional quilts need to think about this, but the edging can make or break a non-traditional or ‘art’ quilt.  As these works commonly hang on the wall, very often a facing is a good way to finish if the maker doesn’t want the line of a binding or a border around the design.  Recently there were a number of links to variations of putting a facing on a rectangular or square quilt.  Facing is a valuable dressmaking or tailoring technique and has been very useful to me edging irregular shaped quilts – such as the one above,  and others of mine such as “Obiri”, “Kimberley” and “Green Island” 

It was this group of work s in the mid ’90’s in particular that led me overcoming certain technical difficulties, and to being asked to write and teach about this.    I have written articles on this ( DUQ magazine nov. 1997)and a chapter in “Workshops From The Guild” published in Australia in 1996.  The link at the end of this post is a summary of tips and diagrams from that writing that might help some readers to successfully finish some larger irregular shaped pieces.  Facing irregular shaped quilts