Just wondering how all of you cut your border fabric in one piece...say about 60 inches long. Do you use a rotary cutter or scissors? I'm struggling with this...not having any success with the rotary cutter.

I never have. Just sew strip together.don't know how u would do that. Did u check you tube? Thought I saw a tute once on it. Was one continous piece.

I use the rotary for most everything as it will give a much more evener cut.

If you're having problems, perhaps is it time to put in a new blade?

Usually I would not cut a full 60" strip ... rather I'd cut and join.
If two pieces, join in the centre.
If three, I'd put WOF in the centre, with short pieces on each side to make the full 60".

How and what I'd do, would be dependent on how long the other side is, and whether there are joins. Also, how many borders I'm working with. You want to change where the seams are on each layer of the border, so they are less noticeable that they'd be if they were stacked up on each other with each seam aligning.

I fold my fabric from end to end then cut with long straight edge and my rotary cutter. I got my straight edge from Home Depto in the tool dept. it's about 5 foot long made of metal.

:thumbup:

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I also fold mine from end to end and use my rotary cutter with my omnigrid ruler and 18x24 mat. Haven't had any problems as long as my blade is not dull.

Lengthwise - parallel to the selvage. I'll cut that first so I have the longest pieces possible and I make sure that the seams are not at any corner.

I just finished a quilt top yesterday that has seven borders. The last border was 7.5 x 88. I folded my fabric end to end so until there were 8 layers to cut. I then put in a NEW rotary blade. Cut through all the layers (parallel to the selvage)like it was butter. I will admit that I was nervous when I cut that last one but it worked out fine. I think a new, sharp blade was the key to success. I used a 6x24 ruler on a 23x35 inch mat.

if you want to cut your borders lengthwise you need to carefully fold your fabric into a manageble size- make sure you line up the folds well- trim the edge so it is nice and even- line up on the folded edge and cut your borders to the width you need-
or you can use a ruler with your fabric opened up and using chalk/pencil/or some other marking tool and draw the line the width you need then cut on the line with scissors