Borders

I took pictures while doing the borders on my Swanky quilt, but a). my camera seems to be having trouble focusing and b). they really weren't very useful. That being said, let us finally carry on with our border lesson.
The first step in doing your borders is to measure your quilt. I don't mean read how big it's supposed to be and cut your borders that length. You actually have to measure :) Many folks just make a big long strip and sew it on and cut it off, and in fact I did that for years. Then I became a longarmer and now I realize that unless you measure, your border ends up as more of a ruffled skirt for your quilt, or more rarely, a belt around its big fat belly.

The way to measure your quilt is this (if you can lay it out, great, if you have to fold it in halves on your kitchen table, that works too): measure the top width, the width across the middle, and the width across the bottom. Sometimes these numbers will be the same, most times they are slightly different. On the rare occasion that they are drastically different (more than an inch), you may want to trim your top if you want it to lay flat and be square. Otherwise, average these numbers. Cut your border strips however wide you want them to be, let's say 6.5" and piece them together until you have enough for that width you just came up with. I blunt piece my borders (meaning I square up their ends and sew a straight seam), but your other option is to piece them on a 45 degree angle. To do this for wide borders, I recommend cutting first.

Line the 45 degree line of your ruler up with the long side of your border fabric. Cut off the end. Then, the piece you're going to attach, cut going the other direction, but also at a 45 degree angle. Piece them together with a little quarter-inch triangle sticking off of either end. (I'll cover this more in depth when I do a special mitered border lesson, hopefully next week, with pictures and all).

So you're all pieced, now cut two border pieces the averaged width of your quilt (*NOTE--it doesn't really matter if you do length or width first, whichever you prefer). Then find the midpoint of those pieces (fold in half and give it a little press to make a crease0. Find the midpoint of the width of your quilt. Now, many people at this stage pin their borders on, but I personally like to use Elmer's Washable School Glue. Line up your centers and working from the center out run a thin line of glue along your quilt top. Lay the border, from center out to the edge. You may have to stretch or bunch up a little bit to make it fit (remember it's an average). Once it's where you want it, press (lift and set) it with a hot iron. Make sure the glue is dry before moving on. Once ironed, it won't go anywhere. Repeat for the other half of that border and the other end. NOTE: If you don't plan to wash your quilt, DO NOT use the glue method. Gluing is for those of us who will wash it out. If you aren't going to wash, do the same thing, but stick a pin every couple inches, perpendicular to the seam and pull them out as you sew.

If your iron got gunked up, get yourself a Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser (the original), get it wet and rub your iron (hot or cold, doesn't matter) really hard on that. Don't worry it won't melt. The glue often hardens onto the iron and forms a dark film--I've never had any issues with this coming off on fabric, it seams to be permanent, but don't use your favorite iron if you're worried about it. Get yourself a nice $10 "Toastmaster" for gluing.

Anyway, now that you're all glued up, go ahead and sew those seams. Then press them toward the border (you may have to tug a little to unglue any glue that squibbed beyond the seam allowance). Don't be scared if you've got some lint transfer from light to dark, this is just dark lint stuck in the glue and when you wash, it will go away. If you're scared. Do a little test with your scraps--glue together, iron, peel apart, wash, if something remains, I'm shocked, but I always tell people anytime they're nervous the best cure is a nice little test.

*I wash ALL my quilts in cold water; if I glued them a lot, I let them soak a little. I dry them too, but much of that will depend on your batting, which we'll discuss next time. Many quilters never wash their quilts. Mine live and are made in a house which is a). not kept very clean because I'd rather be quilting b). inhabited by three black haired shedding machines and also, since I don't prewash, I do like to get the sizing out eventually, after it's served it's purpose. I also use a lot of spray starch, glue, and whatever other chemicals I need to make it work. So, that's why I wash. You decide what's right for you.

Okay, once you're done with the first set of borders, measure left, middle, right of the length, average, cut your borders, find center, align, glue/pin, sew, press and voila! Your first border! If you have multiple borders, continue the process until you're done.

Borders can be a pain but they add a nice frame to most quilts. Doing them correctly is what makes them a pain, but I promise it's worth it in the end because you won't have all sorts of excess border or quilt top that you can't get to quilt out.

I'll discuss batting and backing on Friday and Thread on Tuesday and quilting on next Friday hopefully.

Until then, happy quilting!