this sounds like a case for the "Quilting in Sections" technique I've been investigating. Your border would be sewn to the top like regular, but you put batting only in the center and quilt up to 6" away from the edge of the batting ... then fold back the borders and zig zag (or fuse) the shorter pieces of batting to the edges and quilt the rest of the quilt. Hard to explain maybe. Google "Quilting in Sections" and there are two books I found on Amazon. MUCH easier than QAYG.