I know it isn't etched in stone that the border has to be a certain width but I remember reading a guideline that went something like this:

If your blocks are X inches your border could be X inches wider or X inches narrower than your block.

Make sense? When I read it, it made sense and I think it helped with the overall look of the quilt.

Can you help?

I sometimes base it on the 1 to 3 thought. One inch inner border 3 inch outter. 2/6 etc. but it boils down to whatever looks best for the quilt. It WILL talk to you if you listen!

I use how it looks and what I have on hand. I have been known to make do. As spinnergs has stated let the quilt tell you what it needs:)

As you said, nothing is carved in stone!

Some quilts somewhat "demand" borders ... and some look awesome with no borders at all!!!

Sometimes I go by the bed size .... quilt on the flat of the bed and then borders dropping on the side ... and those varying in size dependant on what looks "right"

the border should be in a proportion of the block size of the quilt- so if your quilt is a sampler with 12" blocks and you want to add borders they should be able to be evenly divided into 12-to be proportionatly balanced...you have lots of choices and can use multiple borders, to get larger sizes and keep things balanced. for 12" blocks you can use 6", 4", 3" or 2" with a good balanced look; 15" blocks - 7 1/2", 5" or 3"...

i was doing so good not double posting- then wham--double post= sorry