Hi I am 70 too, and consider myself an advanced beginner. I sure hope you enjoy this adventure as much as I do. I am the same as the others, a narrow border on all sides and then any size for the borders to make your borders look good to yourself. Oh yes,don't be afraid of the colors either, they will look find, but if you look at the selvages they have the colors that are in the fabric and sometimes that helps.

Your quilt, your rules. I have done in the past is audition my borders with laying out the fabric and sometime I would have to let my mind imagine both sides as I did want to cut anything until I made up my mind. And for the most part, everything turned out better than I could hope. I can't wait to see what you come up with, o please post back to this thread so we are ll in the loop. Good luck, we are all sending you good vibes!

Love this quilt, I have some Santa panels and I need to get some ideas on how to make a top, thanks for sharing

Love the quilt, feline fanatic...I have several panels waiting to be done up, too. Trying to get the borders straight is my problem...I hate squaring up after each border! Sometimes I just go for it, and make sure the last one is straight. To the untrained eye, it never gets noticed! I also agree with feline fanatic...your quilt, your rules!!!

I, too am 70 and a beginner quilter. I recently took a baby panel and made 6" (finished) sides by making (4) four-patch squares, alternaing them with (3) squares that were made from 3-21/2"X61/2" strips of fabric to make a 6" square (finished). Then added a 1/2" border. Turned out cute.

I made this Tinkerbell quilt for a friend using a center panel. The pattern was actually a square but I prefer my quilts to be rectangular. So after adding the narrow dark border around the center of the quilt, I added a 4 inch royal blue strip across both the top and bottom, then added the narrow teal border and outer border around all of it. Both she and I were extremely happy with the outcome.

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You can also do varying size and colors borders, it creates interest around a center panel. A hint for you newbie, take the plunge, there are so many ways to do this- post the finished piece.