How to machine quilt borders?
I love the whole quilting process from design - piece- quilt - bind. (o.k. I don't like basting)
What always stumps me is the borders of a quilt - especially wide ones. What to put on them? I always leave this decision to the end after quilting all the rest, hoping some inspiration will come from previous quilting. I just don't like the marking and trying to figure out how to make it look even (having the pattern spaced out to fit the border without abrupt changes at the corners.) And of course it has to be a continuous design - Starting and stopping so much would drive me crazy and look terrible besides.
Some modern quilts have no borders at all - cool! But since I make a lot of traditional patterns it seems a one border or more is needed for the whole quilt to look right.
How do you design your borders? Do you plan it all out before you start quilting or do you wait and hope to get inspiration as you go through the process of quilting the center elements? Do you use a lot of continuous designs and FMQ? Any help would be gratefully appreciated.