Iceblossom

I use the cut to fit method. I think you can probably get better results doing it the way Tallchick says but I cut my borders extra long and preferably along the long grain of fabric if it is long enough. I do prefer mitered borders but sometimes butt-joints are what are called for by the piecing or the piece of fabric. If I am using a miter I use a correctly cut angle to start. I use a .5" seam on mitered boarders and draw it with pencil on the inside of the fabric. I mark a dot where my 1/4" seam would start along that .5" seam allowance.

Clarification: The border to the top seam is still the standard .25". It's the seam for the miter itself that I draw and cut at .5". I like having a little extra play space.

Then I layout the top + border on a nice long surface. Sometime's that is the ironing board, sometimes I have access to long tables like in lunchrooms or conference rooms, and sometimes my bed is the largest surface in my house. My fabric (both border and top) have been pressed nicely, I'm a big believer in pressing.

And then starting at that trimmed end I pin. And I pin. And I pin. And I pin some more, about every 2 inches, periodically I am smoothing out the fabric, not just the seam area but the whole piece. Then I mark the 1/4" to stop sewing, and I sew the border on, before I cut off the next miter (again, using a half-inch seam allowance which I draw), I press the piece again.

I get very little ripples this way, nothing that can't get easily smoothed out anyway and the miters themselves fit exactly. But key is the pinning and the time spent smoothing out the border.

When I do measure a border I pin the ends first. Then in Half, Quarters, etc. You start fitting in any problems as you may come across them. Probably can get away with maybe 4-6" between pins that way but I still am probably closer to 2-3".

I've always liked pieced borders when they work with the project. Often times I'm using half blocks or other units that work with the block widths. Although there is always the temptation for me to add borders to what I call the "bed" of the quilt, when it comes to a pieced border I combine it to the blocks if I can. I find keeping my pieces a similar size/weight helps so I do the same sort of thing with lattice/sashing. I put it on my blocks as an L shape and not with a long unwieldy row of sashing going on a long unwieldy row of blocks. Here's a picture of a recent top where I took the picture to show what I mean:

edit: btw, I don't usually do it but I was concerned about all those little tiny seams in the border and so I stay-stitched down each set of the border squares within the normal seam allowance. It also helps to shorten your stitch length. I'm not sure when I will actually be quilting this down and I don't want to have to go through a bunch of tiny little seam repairs before I do!