Cedar

So I found my perfect border fabric on clearance at fabric depot and bought all they had left (I would like to use some of it will be used on the back) It's a brown, so contrasting, but it should frame the quilt nicely and I'll do decorative stitching over the patchwork in a matching brown, so color choices are done.

My first question is about size. The quilt top is 5" squares, so 4.5" finished. I would like to add at least another foot for drape and the fabric should make a good big thick border. My original plan was 6" but I'm wondering if something else would be more proportional?

I'm also thinking that in order to get the right framing affect I need mitered corners. I've found several sets of instructions and it doesn't sound too complicated, but I have a question about the math. In all of the formulas you add the length of the pieced quilt plus the width of two borders . . . . But then there's another number added for miter allowance and I've seen numbers from 2" - 10". What number do you use?

Knitette

I think you need to 'audition' different sizes by folding the fabric until you find one you like. There's a calculator for borders here for both mitred and non-mitred. Good luck!

Sisty88

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread as I am just about to add a border to my quilt top and am also thinking mitred is the way to go! I've done a mitred border on a quilt block before but obviously that's much smaller so wouldn't need as much excess, perhaps the smaller excesses are more for quilt blocks than for quilt tops?

117becca

I audition fabrics by playing w/ them to see what works. As far as mitered corners, I don't think necessary because the fabric is busy and probably wouldn't be able to tell whether the corners were mitered or not.

Maureen NJ

I like your quilt and the gradient color scheme. I agree with the others. Busy border, won't see miter. Try different size borders. Lap quilt? How are you going to quilt it?

PaperPrincess

The only time I go though the hassle of mitering borders is when there's an obvious stripe or repeating print. I agree with the other posters that the print is too subtle and the miter isn't going to show. On the other hand, if you want to practice mitering corners, this is probably the perfect fabric as any errors are not going to show.

I LOVE your quilt. Those colors are just wonderful. As far as the border width, I personally would add a 1 to 1.5" dark brown (or rust) stop border first, to really frame the top, then add as much of the leaf print as you need to make up the rest of the 6 inches.

As far as the additional cut for the miter, I'm kind of in the middle. I usually cut about 4 or 5 inches extra. You will cut it off in the end, but I find a little extra fabric makes it easier to do.

Cedar

There's a small problem with auditioning border sizes. . . . I don't actually have the floor space to lay the quilt out or a design wall. I used a twin sized quilt as my back (and pinned like crazy) to do square placement, and then I had excess fabric so I went a little over and made it full. The bed photo is a full sized bed and there's just not enough side fabric so it gets a border. I actually feel like its adding something now, but I don't feel like I can get enough of a feel to eyeball it and if there's a way to figure it mathmatically that would be easiest. .

If you don't think that mitering would add to the picture frame feel I could just not do it. I'm planning on machine quilting around the border and hand quilting branches and leaves in a cinnamon brown that matches the border to reinforce the sun dappled feel of the patchwork, so I want the border to feel as much like a frame as possible, and a nice miter does that. I definately don't want cornerstones.

The idea of a thin rust border is interesting. It would mean more fabric shopping, but I could see it adding to the frame. I could even match it to the pearl cotton I'll be quilting with . . . Or use it to comment the blacks in my patchwork fabric with the brown with a burnt umber color. I'm not 100% sure it's necessary. I kind of ditched the multiple border idea when I bought bunches of the leaf fabric, but now I'm revisiting it. Oh dear!