Please help with squaring a quilt
 

I have just finished quilting a 101x89 quilt on my domestic machine. I'm pooped. It has 4 inch borders. One side measures 1 inch longer than the other. How do I square it up without losing the full 4 inches on one border? Or do I just square up the corners with my 12inch ruler and forget about the inch difference. I'm desperate to finish this thing today. I appreciate your help. The borders are not quilted yet.

When I get my quilts back from my LA quilter, the whole quilt is quilted and that's when I square up my quilt. My LQS owner taught me to do it then. I don't know if everyone else does it that way, but it works for me. So, maybe wait until you quilt your borders, then use your 12 1/2" ruler and square up your quilt. After you quilt your borders, they will be a different size all together.

Try pressing the quilt back into shape and then trim.

My first few quilts were always different sizes on one side so I learned to square it up before I put on the borders. A solid border doesn't make that much difference and I always add a few inches more then I need, but a pieced border will be a mess to try to square up and not lose the design.

Amen, BellaBoo, that is the way my grandma taught me. That and squaring up each block. Makes the end result so much better and takes just a few minutes.

It sounds like your quilt is already quilted, so it's too late for squaring up before quilting. Your best option is to try blocking the quilt to see if you can even it up. I think that will probably work fine, since you are not off that much. However, if that doesn't work, then you have two options. One is to go ahead and slice off some of the side that's too long and accept the fact that the borders will not be exactly even. The other is to leave the quilt as it is. With a bed quilt that large, you won't ever notice that one side is 1" too long, and after a few washings it may even itself out anyway. Don't beat yourself up over it - NO ONE ELSE WILL EVER KNOW! (Because we're not telling.)

I have a saying "If you can't see it on a galloping horse, then it doesn't exist."

If you whack off an inch on a 4" wide border, you're going to notice that alot. You won't notice the one inch on something that is 101" long...Leave it be and figure out why it happened so that you can do it differently next time.

When I had to quilt a quilt that wasn't square I sprayed the long section of the border with hot water, let it dry and sprayed it again. It shrunk up enough. I have also heard of using a steamer to steam the long section. Maybe you can ease in the excess. But, like others said it is a large quilt so I doubt you would even notice once it is on the bed.

I agree with Dunster - either try blocking it, or if you're not planning on entering it in a show, just leave it. No one will notice.

are you saying one border measures 5 inches now? if so, you can square it up and it should all be fine. as long as your borders don't have pieced blocks that could be ruined by trimming into them.