I am finishing a quilt for my sister-in-law. I have used flannel for backing and now I need to decide what to use for the borders. I need your input on this. I am trying to put some pictures on here so you can see it. The picture of the backing does not show the true colors. The backing is brown, green and red.

So you are looking to add borders to the top?

Either top or back. Which ever. I don't have anymore fabric to match the top but I have alot of fabric to match the bottom.

I'm not sure I understand.

Your flannel quilt backing is larger than your quilt top, right? And you are asking about adding borders to the quilt top to make it a size to match the backing? Are you asking if you can use the flannel fabrics used in the backing to enlarge the quilt top?

Yes, the flannel backing is a little bigger than the front but not very much and need to do a border, I think. I new to quilting and this is only the second quilt that I have made. I guess what I am asking is what do you think that I should do? Thanks for all your help.

I think it would be fine to use some of the flannel fabric from the backing as borders for the top. The top looks as if it needs more width. I would consider perhaps adding a narrow border to top and bottom and much wider borders on the sides.

It's easier to first finish the quilt top to the size you want, then piece the backing to reach that size.

Thank you very much for your help.

One thing I forgot to ask.... Did you pre-wash and dry the flannel? If not, it will shrink at a vastly different rate than the other fabrics in the top. At this point, if you haven't preshrunk the flannel, I would go ahead and do that before trying to add to the quilt top. (Wash and dry the backing as well.)

Actually, I wash and dry flannel twice before using it, as it can shrink even more the second time around. After that, it is stable.

I washed both the flannel and the topping.