Hi,
I am making a quilt that measures 40.5 x 30 inches. In the directions for the outer border it says to cut 5 strips, 5.5 x 40, for the inner boarder cut 5 strips 1 1/8 x40. The you sew the inner and outer border strips together.

Now, this is supposed to be a mitered border, but obviously there is not enough length on the side borders to do this. It says to piece as necessary. Would you ever piece the strps together to make the border strips longer? Will it look bad to do this?

Thanks,

Margaret

Mitering borders is much different then mitering binding so it doesn't take too much extra. It's fine to piece a border to make it longer. I do it all the time which makes it fine in my book. :lol:

If I'm using a fabric that the seam will be really noticeable, I usually buy more fabric and cut the borders lengthwise. I cut those first, then I cut the other pieces. It takes more planning to do it this way, but it's worth it if I'm going to be unhappy with the pieced border. It's easier to get away with piecing it if the pattern is smaller. JMHO :)

I cut the borders lengthwise, too. Especially if mitering corners.

It sounds like in your directions, that you're cutting 5 of each of the borders, the 5th to be cut in half and added to the borders for the long sides. That's the only way it will be long enough.

if the fabric is a pattern where you won't notice the joining seam i'll do it.

i never join strips for a border if the fabric is solid or if the seam will stand out on a certain pattern.

I often seam my borders and I try to place the seam in the center of the panel (it's a symmetry thing). Depending on my mood (and how much fabric I have) is whether I figure out how long the pieces have to be to accommodate the miter, or I just sew them on and cut off the excess.

The fact that your instructions tell you to cut five (5) lengths, indicates that you are expected to seam the long side.

Thanks, everyone.

I will try to piece the borders. It's a busy print so it won't be too noticeable.

Margaret

I'm sure it will look great. Post a picture when you get done.

I piece borders all the time. On one of my first quilts, I wasn't using a pattern and didn't plan for the border, so came up really short. The solution ended up improving the quilt dramatically, so even though it's one of my first, it's still one of my favorites.

http://inlinethumb55.webshots.com/45...600x600Q85.jpg

WOW!!!

thats your 1st quilt!

the quilting is awesome - i love the circular pattern to the quilting.

YOU'RE A ROCK STAR!

Well, ONE of my first. And the quilting was done with PCQuilter--which I don't have anymore, so am learning to freehand--and don't expect EVER to be able to do spirals like that!

Really a beautiful quilt!

rabbit, that is a wonderful quilt and if i am seeing it right, you filled in with a different color, right? that's a great idea for making a border longer. so is the cornerstone idea, just because it says mitre, doesn't mean you have to, after all.

margaret, if you do piece, i think you should piece individually and in different places, so it's not as noticable (sp).

I piece borders all the time.

One time Eleanor Burns showed how to correct a pieced border that had a print that really did show where it was pieced. She cut a fussy cut of one of the flowers in the pattern and apliqued it over the seam, made it look good.

I've pieced borders. On one I did recently I had to cut the borders crosswise to get the design in the right orientation. To make the piecing less noticable I carefully matched the design. You can see the seam in the closeup of the border pic but it blends in pretty well on the overall photo.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/posts/list/12200.page


I prefer to put the seam a little off center, especially if I'm piecing both sides. That way I don't have two seams directly across from one another. Hope this makes sense.

I never cut my borders ahead of time. I wait until the top is pieced then square the top. I measure through the middle of the quilt lenghthwise and cut the lengthwise border. Do the same for crosswise. To splice the border for the necessary length is a personal preference. It's certainly easier to cut borders on the crossgrain and splice as needed. Sometimes I do that, but I REALLY love the look of an unspliced border. I just hate the hassle of cutting those perfect long lengths on the long grain. I've found that if I splice, where to place the splice really makes a difference. You don't want to place it near the edge of quilt. Sometimes that means wasting a lot of fabric, and I'm thinking I could have been better off yardage-wise cutting on the lengthwise grain.

Thanks! Actually, it isn't just cornerstones--there are pieces in the middle of each side as well.

I so want to make that quilt again, knowing what I know now. Everything besides the borders was on the bias! Ignorance was bliss...<g>

I don't think I've done any borders that weren't cut crosswise. I do press those seams open to keep as flat as possible and make sure the pieceing thread is light/dark enough, but once it's pressed and quilted, unless it was a mismatched stripe or something, I think the piecing would be completely unnoticeable.

where?

I think you did a great job with matching.

Even though you were asking someone else, I'll chime in here: if I have a choice, I'll try to piece 1/4 or 1/3 away from the corner, and/or not directly across on two sides (or top and bottom).

Same here.

I cut the lengthwise borders first - and I cut them LONGER than I think I'll need to, because who knows how I'll change the quilt as I go along. I can always make the border shorter, but I don't always like to piece to make it longer, even though I've often done it. I like the creative ways many of you have done this.

It's perfectly okay to piece borders. Do make sure that when you do that that you join your border pieces using the 45 degree (diagonal) seam rather than just butting the straight pieces together. It makes the border hang nicely and looks more professional.