Hey ladies...I was wondering...when you are going to do a design on your horizontal and vertical borders on a quilt...how much larger do you cut your fabric than the actual border size when you are going to embroider on it? Oh..that sounded confusing...ok...my border is to be finished 8" wide by 67" long...but I want to embroider a design on it...how much extra should I allow just for you know..fudge factor, etc...

I always seem to screw this up..so any help would be appreciated. Thanks :D

What a great question. I just got a janome 9500 and was wondering the same thing.

I would allow a couple of inches in width and 5 - 6 in lenght. I'd rather cut it down than have it to small.

I would cut it larger a few inches both ways
then find your center and mark( I use a pin)
I then mark with chalk the true edges of my border
so you still have markings thru out the whole embroidery process I then baste on this line in contrasting thread.
this relly helps when hooping and centering your designs

Thats a great idea to baste the "true edge"...thanks so much!

I've got 3 designs that I am going to do fairly close together and I have a mega hoop (one of the really long ones)...would I be better off re-hooping and leaving the border all 1 piece or should I just cut it and do 3 separate pieces, then piece the border?

Patti, What little I do in embroidery, I usually do the embroidery first and then cut the fabric to whatever I want, IF that makes sense. I can never get it right otherwise.

Elle

Yes, it makes sense Elle...I'm just not sure which will be harder for me...lining up the center point for the 3 different designs...or doing them on separate pieces of fabric, then cutting them to size and sewing them together.

Sleep on it Patti, just think easy. Is this for a round? I am trying to imagine what you are doing?

Yes...its a final round on an IRR...I'll email you a pic in a sec.

I would go for 3 separate pieces... I by no means wish to jinx you, but if something goes wrong with the embroidery? You may have to end up starting over if you don't have enough fabric inbetween the designs to cut and piece them together at that point.

Maybe cut one of the 3 pieces, embroider it and see how much it shrinks, then cut the rest accordingly :D:D:D