Today we are going to talk about sewing borders onto a quilt. It’s important to have borders that help keep your quilt square – otherwise your pieced top will be more difficult to ‘quilt’ and it will not lie flat – instead it will have little ripples in the edges of the quilt.
For this project you will need four strips of fabric measuring 3 ½” x 42″ (or the width of the fabric as it comes.)
It’s a good idea to measure the length of the quilt sides before you sew, rather than just starting at one end, sewing on a strip, and cutting-off the excess after. This will help to keep the quilt ‘square.’
This is the easiest and fastest way I’ve found for measuring your border lengths. Before you measure your borders, carefully trim off the selvage edges of the borders themselves. Then lay 2 of the border strips across the middle of your quilt, lining-up one end of the strips with the edge of the quilt. The other strip edges will hang over the side. Place a pin in the border strips where the quilt ends. And then carefully trim with your ruler and rotary cutter where that pin marks.
Then fold the border strip in half, end to end, to find the center. Pin the center of your strip to the center of your pieced quilt top and pin the ends of the strip to the ends of the quilt. Then space pins along the strip to secure the strip in place. (It is not bad if your strip is slightly smaller than the pieced part of the quilt, but this is why starting at the center and the ends when pinning is important.)
Pin opposite side of quilt and sew both borders on to the edges of the pieced portion. Press the borders open and flat working from the front side of the quilt.
Repeat the process on the other edges. Lay the 2 remaining border strips across the center portion of the quilt. Place a pin to mark where to trim, cut off remnant, pin and sew. Press. That’s it!
Now, this project worked out nicely size-wise – we didn’t need longer strips. If you are working on a larger quilt, cut your border strips the same way (just cut more of them) and sew the strips together end to end to create a longer strip of fabric. The process for measuring is the same. Measure, trim, pin, sew, press. Same goes for adding multiple borders to one quilt.
Up next Tuesday in our Quilt Along Series: batting and backing
Amy Smart likes her family, fall, and fish tacos. She blogs about making quilting cool at Diary of a Quilter.
This is great – I never knew how to keep a quilt square. I always just started sewing at one end and trimmed off the excess, like you said. Thanks for the lesson!
DeAnna and Beth – yes – you are right. Sorry that part was unclear -I’m sure you weren’t the only one’s with that question. Pin to the edges of the quilt where you are going to sew the border. Center the border at the center of the edge, then pin the ends to the ends of the quilt. I hope that helps anyone else out there that I confused!
I have a picture that will clarify. I’ve been trying to add, but I’m still a WordPress novice and haven’t figured out how to add to past posts. (Sorry, I’m a dork.) Thanks for your patience! (If anyone wants the picture email me at amy{@}diaryofaquilter.com)
I am super new at quilting and I don’t get borders!!! Yikes. I have read and re-read your post and it isn’t clicking!! **** From this point on I am completely lost: Then fold the border strip in half, end to end, to find the center. Pin the center of your strip to the center of your pieced quilt top and pin the ends of the strip to the ends of the quilt. Then space pins along the strip to secure the strip in place. (It is not bad if your strip is slightly smaller than the pieced part of the quilt, but this is why starting at the center and the ends when pinning is important.)……………..Am I over thinking this?
I agree…. I was over thinking as well. After reading several times, I concluded
Pin the center of your strip to the center of your pieced quilt top (WHERE THE BORDER IS TO BE PLACED) and pin the ends of the strip to the ends of the quilt. Not the actual CENTER of the quilt top.
I hope I understand correctly.
So THATS how you keep things square?!! Great tip! I always just start sewing and trim off the ends like you said — haha.
Really good! I was just lamenting this problem of keeping things squared up today.
Great tips! My borders always seem to have one or two that are too long!
I never knew borders were so important – I would have left them off! – thanks for the heads up