Do you or don't you?
#51
I plan as I go. After I have completed PART of my quilt, I may have a better idea of what will work for a border, and go ahead and buy the fabric to be sure it will not be sold out when I need it, but when the quilt top is near completion, I might decide it will not work. I find it better all the way around to decide on a border fabric after the quilt top is actually ready for the border.
#52
Power Poster
Join Date: May 2009
Location: NY
Posts: 10,590
Something that's happened to me before is that I've made the inside of a quilt and then had a hard time finding the right border material for it. Now, although I don't always have the whole quilt planned, I usually do try to have the border fabric predetermined, and I try to incorporate some of it into my quilt so that it all goes nicely together.
This is how I do it too! I almost always incorporate some of the fabric I used in the border into the quilt. If I am doing a pieced border then definitely I will be using some, if not all of the fabrics I used in the quilt in the border. I am one who buys fabric without a purpose in mind. I like the fabric, I buy. So I always try to buy enough yardage to incorporate some into a border, even if it is just a narrow accent border.
On occasion, I have bought a fabric and saw that a coordinated border stripe was available so bought it to go with, for when I get around to using it in a project. I usually buy enough to do a queen size quilt, which is my most common quilt size.
I have only had an intended border fabric not work out once and ended up buying a different fabric.
#54
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 493
I plan the entire quilt BUT a quilt will be what IT wants to be. At some point it takes on a life of it's own and I just follow it where it takes me. I have tried to fight with a quilt and force it to be made my way but the quilt always wins. I have a shelf full of quilt-tops in the closet that I didn't listen to and they prove my point.
#56
I usually plan my matchy-matchy quilts from my stash and pick out border fabrics at the same time as I pick out the main fabrics. Using up scraps from previous quilts, as I am now, I pick out border fabrics I have cut out before, or I just pick out fabrics I might not want to use later.
#58
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 106
I know exactly what I am going to do when I start. I piece the backing and binding at the same time as the top. In fact, I cut the binding when cutting the top and usually have that sewed and pressed and rolled before I ever even start piecing the top.
#59
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Bay Area near San Francisco
Posts: 1,213
My quilts are a lot like my cooking. My son used to get so irritated when he was ten or eleven. He'd come in and I'd be browning ground meat. He'd ask "What's for supper?" My answer - "I don't know, I'm not finished with it yet."
I always have a vision in my brain - sometimes that vision is "Lost in Translation." Sometimes it work out beautifully.
I always have a vision in my brain - sometimes that vision is "Lost in Translation." Sometimes it work out beautifully.
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