Recently, while preparing to square a quilt, I did what every quilter has nightmares about: I cut the corner off of my quilt. I had just picked the quilt up from my long-armer, so the quilting was complete. There was a large section of extra batting on one side. Instead of doing what I normally do (lay it flat and use a ruler and rotary cutter), I decided to use scissors to trim off the majority of the excess to make the quilt easier to handle.

The quilt was folded in half. I knew I needed to be careful and make sure I didn’t inadvertently cut into my top. Well, when I laid it flat, I discovered it was missing a corner. 🤦

Modern patchwork quilt with the corner cut off.

Because this has never happened before, I wasn’t sure what to do. I posted on Instagram asking for advise. The Instagram quilt community quickly offered several ideas for fixing my quilt. I’ve divided the suggestions into two categories: design-based options and mending options. Then, I share the steps I took to repair my quilt.

Design-based options to repair your quilt

There are many out-of-the-box ideas for how you can repair a cut corner on your quilt by slightly altering your design. Essentially, these options are about leaning in to the situation. If you don’t want to go the mending route (see below), you have options. As the quilter, you can select which design choice appeals to you most.

Leave the one corner wonky and take credit as the creative mind behind this design.
Cut the other three corners of your quilt at a similar angle and use bias binding.
Round off the corners of your quilt and use bias binding.
Trim the edge of your quilt to make it flat and sacrifice that section of your quilt top (this option didn’t work for me because of the quilt pattern).
Create a thicker binding and stitch it down further into your quilt top to accommodate that cut corner.

Methods to mend a quilt’s cut corner

There are also several options available to repair the corner you cut off of your quilt. The choice here is really about what techniques you’re comfortable with and how much effort you want to put into the repair.

Grafting with invisible thread

Option 1: Before you do anything else, it’s important to secure the quilting. (Thanks to Karen McTavish for this advice.) Run a stitch on your cut edge immediately before the quilting starts to come out as they are no longer secure. Butt the slice back up to the quilt and do a zigzag with invisible thread. Bottom thread should match your back. Then, trim and bind. Optional: Hide the repair with a beautiful label that echoes the same colors on top
Option 2: Use the quilt-as-you-go method that uses an extra piece of fabric to connect the different pieces. See this video here for how this works. This is the method I decided to use.

Use applique or a label

Hide the repair with a label or an applique with the exact same motif as the quilt.

Do a little quilt surgery

Option 1: Unstitch the piece, add same color fabrics and sew it back onto the quilt, add quilting
Option 2: Undo the quilting on the pieces that have been cut and tie and bury the threads. Fold back top and backing and add new triangle of batting - zigzag it together. Replace cut off piece on backing. Replace pieces on the front with new fabric to allow for the seam. Redo quilting from where you tied off ends.

How to repair A cut quilt corner with a Quilt-as-you-go method

I decided to mend my quilt using a quilt-as-you-go method that I learned in a Jacqui Gering workshop. Here are the steps I took:

I stitched along each edge of the cut pieces to secure the quilting. Thanks to Karen McTavish for this advice.
Then, I ironed a strip of fusible interfacing to the corner piece on the backside with about a 1/2” of interfacing hanging over the edge where I planned to attach it to the quilt. (If I were to do this again, I wouldn’t do this. I would instead sew one strip 1” fabric (as explained in step 4) to one piece on the back and to the other piece on the front.)
On the backside of my quilt, I aligned the corner piece and ironed down the interfacing to connect the two pieces.
Then, I cut a 1” thick strip of fabric and ironed the two long edges in toward the center. I then placed that strip over the “gap”. After I got it where I wanted it. I unfolded it and sewed it to the top along one of the folds (about a 1/4” from the edge of the strip). Press.
I laid the piece flat again with the edge folded under. I then hand stitched the final side. (see image below).
Then, I quilted on this piece of fabric to connect my quilting design. I didn’t have the exact color of thread, but it was close enough.