The fool-proof way to add borders to your quilt | Amour Quilted Banner

Yesterday on QUILTsocial I showed you how to use HeatnBond EZ Print Feather Lite 10 pcs – 22 x 28cm (8½″ x 11″) and the SULKY Cotton Petites 6 Spool Thread Set – Rosewood Manor to make a fusible applique block of the word Amour for my Valentine’s Day quilted banner.

Today I’ll sew all the pieces of the quilt together and show you the fool proof way to add borders to a quilt.

Assembling the Quilt

1 Add sashing strips.

The first thing I’ll do to assemble the quilt is to use my CLOVER 2501 – Silk Pins (Boxed) – 36mm (1³⁄₈″) to pin and then sew the 2″ x 18½” strips of background fabric to the top and bottom of the fusible applique block. Then I’ll use my OLISO PRO^TM TG1600 Pro Plus Smart Iron – Tula Pink^TM to press the seams towards the sashing strips.

Sew on the sashing strips and then press the seams towards the sashing.

2 Add the heart row.

Next, I’ll pin and then sew the heart row to the sashing strip that is on the top of the applique block. Then I’ll once again, press the seam towards the sashing.

Pin and then sew the heart row to the top of the applique block.

3 Add the XOX row.

Now, I’ll pin and then sew the XOX row to the sashing on the bottom of the applique block. Then I’ll press the seam towards the sashing.

Pin and then sew the XOX row to the bottom of the applique block.

4 Add the inner border.

Now it’s time to add the inner border. In my first post, 6 Steps to make letter blocks the easy way | Amour Quilted Banner, I cut the strips for the inner border out of the background fabric but I didn’t cut them to length.

Here is the most important thing to remember when you’re adding borders to a quilt. To correctly add borders to a quilt, you should measure the quilt and then cut the border the length needed. If you just take your border and sew it onto the side of the quilt there’s a good chance that you’ll either stretch the border, or you will stretch the quilt and your border will end up being puckered or wavy. Measuring prevents this from happening. Since I cut three strips from my gray fabric and I need four pieces for my border, I’ll join the border pieces together end to end using a mitered (diagonal) join. The only time that I don’t use a mitered join in my borders is when I’m sewing a striped fabric.

After stitching the two lengths of fabric together, I’ll trim away the excess fabric using my OLFA RTY-2/GP5 – Printed Handle Rotary Cutter 45mm and my UNIQUE Double Sided Cutting Mat – 18″ x 24″ (45 x 60cm).

Sew the border strips together with a mitered join and then trim away the excess fabric.

I almost always add the side borders to my quilts first, and then the top and bottom borders. To get the correct length for the side borders, I’ll measure the length of my quilt along both sides and down the middle. If these measurements are not the same, I’ll add them up and divide by 3 to get the average and I’ll cut the two borders this length. Since this is just a small quilt, I can use my OMNIGRID Ruler – 6″ x 24″ (15.2 x 61cm) to measure. If the quilt was larger I would use a UNIQUE QUILTING Quilters’ Tape Measure – Extra Long – 300cm (120″).

Measure the length of the quilt through the middle and along both sides and then take the average of these three numbers to determine the length of the borders.

The middle of my quilt measures 23½”. The two sides measure 23½” and 23¼”. So, I’ll cut my two side borders just under 23½” long.

Now I’ll find the middle of the side of the quilt and I’ll mark it with a small pencil tick in the seam allowance, and will do the same at the ¼ and ¾ points. I’ll do the same thing with the border and will put a tick mark at the ¼, ½, and ¾ points. You could also use pins at these points if you preferred.

Put a tick mark in the seam allowance at the ¼, ½, and ¾ points along the side of the quilt and the border.

Now, all I need to do is pin both ends of the border to the quilt and then match the tick marks and pin the border along the side of the quilt. If I was adding a border to a larger quilt I would divide it and the border to be added into eight or 16 equal sections.

Pin both ends of the border to the quilt and then match the tick marks and pin at each of those points as well.

Next, I’ll stitch that border on and then press the seam towards the border.

Once that side border is sewn on, I’ll repeat this process for sewing on the opposite side border and then the top and bottom borders.

So, there you have it – the fool proof way to add borders to your quilt is just to measure, cut and pin before sewing!

Now that the rows are sewn together and the inner border has been added, tomorrow I’ll make a scrappy border using strip sets and I’ll make some fancy magic binding for the quilt. See you then.

This is part 4 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 3: The easiest way to do fusible applique | Amour Quilted Banner

Go to part 5: 7 easy steps to make a scrappy border using strip sets

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