I am still having trouble with my borders being wavy. How many inches apart do you pin. I pin probably about every 2 to 3 inches. Could my strip not be straight? I know I'm suppossed to measure and then cut but everytime I do that I end up with too much or too little - somehow. So I go ahead and pin until I get to the end and then I fold back the excess, iron it and then cut on the crease. Is this causing my wavy borders?

HELP

Kim

The way I was taught to do borders, is measure the quilt across the middle, and both sides, average the measurement for the border. Do the same for the top and bottom. This should square up your quilt.

Yes. You really need to measure through the middle, cut your borders to match that length, and then pin the border matching center points and ends first, then halfway points, etc. When you sew the border on, you need to ease in extra fullness -- whether it's fullness in the quilt or fullness in the border.

Here is a link to a previous thread. If you scroll down, you will see the post where I explained this process in more detail. Although that post is about squaring up a quilt, the process is the same for wavy borders. The waviness usually comes from sewing too much border to the quilt edge; the border stretches as you sew it on to the quilt. Measuring, cutting and pinning the border prevents that stretching.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/posts/list/15320.page

I'm still new at this so what do you mean when you say "ease in the fullness".

I use a walking foot... this eases the extra fabric into the quilt so it comes out flat and even.

After you have measured and cut the border, you pin it to the quilt -- starting with the mid-points and ends. Halfway between each of those pins you pin again. You do this over and over until you have pins every 4 inches or so. What you may notice is that in some 4-inch sections there is more border than quilt, while in other sections there may be more quilt than border. "Easing in" the fullness means stitching the two sections so they match -- but without stretching the short one to match the big one. Basically you are manipulating the fabric so there are tiny, tiny little bubbles in the excess fabric with every stitch.

If the quilt looks larger than the border, you want to sew with the quilt side next to the feed dogs. The feed dogs move the fabric; the presser foot does not. This means that a little more of the bottom fabric will be stitched to the top fabric. Using a walking foot makes this process much more even because the walking foot works at feeding the top fabric; however, it's still a good idea to place the fuller piece next to the feed dogs.

In an extreme case where some sections of the quilt are too full while others are too scant, you might want to flip the quilt sandwich over so that the fuller piece is always next to the feed dogs. Also, in an extreme case where there is way more quilt than border, you can sew a gathering stitch along the quilt's edge and pull that up to make the quilt fit the border length better before you start sewing.

There are probably sewing sites that demo easing in fullness.

It is absolutely a MUST that you measure the top across the middle and cut the border to that length!

I pin at each end, then I fold the top and border in half and pin them at the center point. I repeat the folding in half and pinning at that point at least one more time. This helps distribute the fabric if there is a difference in length.

You are supposed to put the side that has too much fabric on the bottom and let the feed dogs help control the easing process.

It is really worth the measuring and cutting to fit because you won't have the waves. (I have taken the non-measuring shortcut and spent time reverse sewing.)

Thank you all for the tips. My next quilt is ready for borders (once I find the fabric to use on it) so I'll use everyone's advice.