3 essential tips for adding borders to a quilt

I’ve gathered up my equipment to use in this project and sketched out a design on a piece of paper as well as cut a few pieces of fabric to create the background of the project. Today I’m going to move forward and highlight 3 essential tips for adding borders to a quilt.

The cutting instructions for the block pieces can be found in yesterday’s post, 5 elements of a good quilt design. The cutting instructions for the border will come later in this post.

Today is all about piecing and sewing so…. let’s get sewing!

Sewing the sashing

I chose to cut the sashing pieces into squares. I could’ve left as strips and sewn strips together but I wanted each sashing piece to look a little bit different with different fabrics in each one.

To begin I paired up my red and gold squares making sure I never duplicated a set and I was successful.

Chain sewing these sets together is the fastest and most efficient way to work.

Pressing can be done with a finger presser or an iron. I chose to use an iron although the finger presser works just as well but I wanted get up and walk – sitting at the machine all the time isn’t a good thing for the body.

Next I paired the green pieces with the red/gold pairs and chain sewed them together to make 12 sets of red/gold/green squares.

Three of these make up a piece of sashing and I need 4 sashing pieces as I’m putting them between the cream squares and at each end.

Once the sashing is made I’ll attach it to the 9½″ cream background pieces. Pinning them will ensure they don’t stretch and fit onto the background pieces perfectly.

The center of the runner is completed with 3 blocks and 4 sashing sections.

Add the borders

I was going to piece the border with diamonds using one of the mini templates that Sew Easy has but then I decided that I’d applique the diamonds on instead. Mainly because I want the diamonds to go point to point and I don’t like sewing set in seams which I’d have to do if I were to piece the diamonds point to point and time is running out to get this project on my table in time for Christmas.

The border pieces have now become very simple – just plain pieces of fabric.

Cut from the cream fabric 2 – 3″ x 9½″ pieces and 2 – 3″ x 36″ pieces.

Sew the side pieces to the centerpiece and then the top and bottom.

3 tips for adding borders

TIP 1 Measure 3 times – across the top of the quilt, across the center of the quilt and across the bottom of the quilt. If all the numbers come out the same then cut the border pieces that size. If one or more is different then total the three numbers, divide by 3 which will give you the average. Use this number as the cutting size. By using the average number the border pieces will be the same size and the quilt top will end up square.

Use a measuring tape rather than a ruler or the grid on the cutting mat. The measuring tape will be the most precise tool.

TIP 2 Pin the borders in place – start by pinning each end then the middle adding pins by dividing each section with no pins in half and adding a pin until the whole border piece is pinned to the quilt. This ensures that if the border piece and quilt top aren’t quite the same length that the 2 pieces will match up and be square.

TIP 3 Never use a piece of fabric that is too long for the border and then trim off – this most often results in a not so square quilt.

The top is now pieced and those 3 essential tips for adding borders to a quilt are going to come in handy for future projects as well.

Join me tomorrow as we continue the Christmas runner.