Pyramid Quilt Border

By Rose Smith

I love trying out new ideas for quilt borders and the pyramid border is a great way to have something different without involving anything too complicated. 

The basic block is made from three triangles and I have made it 4” wide here.

The triangles required for this quilt border are made from 5.1/4” white squares cut across both diagonals to make quarter square triangles, 5.1/4” dark squares cut across both diagonals to make quarter square triangles and 4.7/8” light squares cut across one diagonal to make half square triangles.

Begin by sewing together a white square and a dark square with the white on the left and the dark on the right. 

Sew this unit to the diagonal edge of the light coloured half square triangle. 

This is the basic unit of the pyramid quilt block.

Press these squares and trim the ends of the triangles to reduce bulk.  Sew the squares together in whatever lengths you need for the edge of your quilt. 

In order to avoid a mismatch at the end of the quilt edge it makes sense to make the pyramid squares the same size as the quilt blocks. 

For example if you had 2” finished size quilt blocks then you would use 2.7/8” squares for the light fabric and 3.1/4” squares for the dark and the white fabric.

Sew a length of the pyramid border squares to the top and bottom of the quilt.  You then need a cornerstone to add to the quilt border for the sides.  This is where I really struggled. 

Another pyramid square didn’t look right because of the change of direction.  I tried plain squares in all three fabrics and they didn’t look right either. 

In the end I settled for a square made of a light fabric and a white half square triangle.  I don’t know if you will think that this works, but it was the best that I could come up with.

Rose Smith is passionate about quilting and likes to share her quilting ideas through tutorials and free quilt patterns on her website: Learn How to Quilt

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