When you are quilting by machine you will sew off the edge of the quilt border into the extra batting a few inches so that when you trim the quilt to size there is quilting holding down the entire quilt. This helps to stablize the edge of the quilt for attaching the binding.
If I do a quilt that doesn't have alot of quilting at the edge, after I finish the quilting I will do a basting stitch around the whole quilt edge to hold it in place before I trim it to size. I use the walking foot for this. Hope this info helps.
If you are planing to use 2 colors, do the whole center of the quilt first and then the border. This all depends on what pattern you choose.
EDIT: I keep reading your thread and have more to say. You can do the border design in white if you want to. It will show and it may look cool. Is your border pattern different from the main body of the quilt or is the pattern an all over one?
peace
Last edited by ube quilting; 11-16-2011 at 03:02 PM.