This was a great read for the this morning because I finished my Mystery Train 16 blocks last night and couldn't decide on the sashing and border so I only got as far as pressing my fabrics...then I watched the Grammy's.

Today I will add my sashing and borders with a new idea of width in mind.

Well, I made the 1" border and then...I kind of liked it. I may not add anymore at all.

Watson

Jenny Beyer, in one of her books offered suggestions as to border width. I don't have the book, but you might find it in a library.

Does the quilt police live at you house? Are you expecting to win first place? If not it is your quilt, do what you like best.

[QUOTE=PaperPrincess;7763126]I like a stop border and usually make it 1/2 to 1" finished. For the next border, I have various methods.
1) The final quilt has to be a certain size, so I add borders to make it that size
2) I only have a limited amount of border fabric left, so that's how big the border is.
3) The border fabric is a print, and I want a particular portion of the print to show.
4) I use the scientific audition method. I sew on the narrow inner border, lay the outer border out & move the quilt back & forth.

I do the same methods. The quilt will tell you what it wants. Often I wait until the end to even decide on what border(s) to use. Just be careful that the borders do not over power the inner blocks of the quilt. I have made border as big as 15" since I like a longer drop on the side of the bed. and to bring up the quilt to size. One quilt I just finished with 2 stop borders and was ready to add the final border when the quilt said "I need another color in the borders". instead of adding another border I did a flange of the accent color. PERFECT!!!!!

Audition them. Lay out a couple very different looks and every time you walk into the room, which side appeals to you? That will be your starting point. There are quilts that go from borderless to framed with same as sashing size to double sashing to huge borders to make the quilt top bigger. Whatever pleases your eye is the correct one.

One inch border, and then a binding?
You may not want to hear this suggestion, but .... I'll give it anyway! :)

If you like it with the one inch and nothing more .... my suggestion is to take it off and replace it with an extra wide binding. That way your border is all border ..... and no binding! To me it looks much nicer than border plus binding.

Of course, we don't know if this is a wall/art quilt? or a functional one?
Depending on the end purpose, and wash-frequency, you may not want the wide binding without any quilting on it. Though that could be stabilized with some top stitching, if you were concerned.

Here's a wall hanging where I used the wide binding as the border .....
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...s-t241121.html

I always do what looks good to me. All quilts are different, of course. Have fun with it & do what looks good to you. It is your creation so there are no rules.

If there are rules, I always say rules are made to be broken. Do whatever you want.

I'm making a baby quilt right now & my finished blocks are 7 1/2" square. I've put on a 1 1/4" border (finished size) around for the first border & then a 2" border (finished size) around for a second border. I like the way it looks. I never thought that there might be some sort of formula before your post here. I just go by what I think looks good. Sometimes I need to enlarge a quilt so I will do it with borders.