Can anyone please help me with this? I am new to quilting. I am ready to cut my boarders but i am confused. Quilt top measures 48 1/2 by 60 1/2 inches. Instructions called for 7, 2-1/2 in by 42 in strips. Am I supposed to sew all of them together in a long strip then piece?. 7 strips seem like too many. Thank You for your time.

Karen

They must be figuring that you will be cutting them the width of the fabric, which means you will need to piece them. What I do is sew my strips, right sides together on the bias. That way the seam is just about invisible. You can probably get 2 of the short border pieces from 3 pieces of 42" long strips. There are 2 ways to do that. Sew all 3 pieces togethere and then cut them the length and sw the remaining ones together and cut them to length. Less waste that way. Or you could sew it all together and cut out 4 pieces. You just need to make sure that the seams won't be right at the very end of the quilt--too much bulk in one place and try to make sure that 2 adjacent border pieces don't have a seam right at the same corner, if possible. Hope I haven't confused you even more!

Karen, Are you talking about borders or binding?