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.

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.

I too like to fly by the seat of my pants, plan as I go!

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.

I do both. There has been times when I new exactly what I was looking for when I decided on the quilt top itself, then other times I have no clue and just go with whatever happens.

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.

I start with the overall plan........I finish with what the quilt tells me.

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.

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.

It's always a big puzzle, isn't it? That's why we love quilting--the challenge of it all.