boarder question
 

When adding a border, how do I keep it from becoming wavy? I've tried using a walking foot.

I'm so glad you brought this up.
I have followed all the directions for measuring and somehow I still have problems with waves!!

Are you talking about quilting it or piecing it?

I measure 3 areas across my top, below the top, across the middle, and above the bottom. I then take the average and cut my border accordingly. I then pin the border to the edge of the top, starting in the middle and work my way out, then sew the borders on. I prefer mitered borders and use a different method for those.

Waves can occur if you fit the border to the outside edge of the quilt, rather than measuring the length of the quilt at the center (which is usually a bit shorter than the outside edge), cutting the border that length and easing the quilt edge in to fit the border.

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!

Don't sew the borders on first, then cut. Do it the way tallchick says. FYI, this is also how most award-winning quilters and professional quilters do it.

I use the method that tall-chick posted for borders and add a few extra steps in my process.

First, I square up the quilt and stay stitch around it using a 2.0 stitch length. Borders are cut and stay-stitched then given another press. Stay-stitching helps prevent stretching on those long pieces. I mark match-up points on both pieces (about 10-12 inches apart). Match up the quilt/borders and pin together.

This method may take another 15-30 minutes but this gives me the best results on quilts/borders. Good luck!

Make sure your sewing machine tension is not too tight.

If your tension is too tight, there will be many, many small 'ruffles' at the sewing line. Each little ruffle is extra length/fullness on the border. I have had to re-do more than one border because of that little bit of a 'ruffle', and have taken up to 2" off a border after re-do of the border.

Also, when you hear someone say 'press your fabric', listen. Ironing will stretch fabric. As always, I learned that the hard way.

I rarely have wave in my borders. If I do, it's because of cutting the borders on width of fabric. If I have to do the WOF, then I will staystitch. That's the only way for me to keep it from waving.

Usually I square the quilt top up before adding the borders. I try to cut my borders with the selvage instead of width of fabric. Cutting lengthwise takes a lot of stretchiness out of the equation. I cut the border fabric to the measured length. Then I put markers at 1/2 way, then 1/4 from each direction on both the pieced top and the border fabric. Pin that accurately. Don't pull the pins out until you are ready to sew in that spot. Then I put a pin about two inches from either end. fyi...it amazes me how I can do all this pinning and get to the end and almost be short of fabric. Then, when I sew, I maintain a small amount of tension on the fabric to keep the top & bottom lined up together.

Just to clarify, "pressing" is lifting the iron up off the fabric before moving it. "Ironing" is dragging the iron across the fabric, which can stretch and distort the fabric.