No matter what I do and after measuring, measuring and more measuring, my figures never come out. I have too much pattern or not enough for a border. I even resorted to pinning adding machine paper to the border and then transferring the template to that but even that fails me. Do you have any tricks to making a border fit the dimensions or know of any tutorials I could watch. I've been quilting for ten years and since I have so much trouble with pattern borders, I tend to do straight line quilting in the borders and I'm bored to death and want some pretty patterns in my borders.

I once saw a tutorial where they put cans along the border at even intervals then they drew the "Vine" weaving in and out of the cans. Then the border pattern fit no matter the dimension of the quilt.

I do the corners first, then find the middle, and then break it up in sections from there. And I still have trouble getting it to work out even sonetimes.

I cut a length of paper (joined with sticky tape if necessary) the width of the border, and the same length. Then I fold it in half, quarters, eighths and so on until I have the paper creased into regular sections all along its length. Then I know that any design that will fit in that folded section will fit along the length of the border. No math at all! To deal with the corners, the easiest way is to choose a square design to go in that, then cut the length of paper to go from corner design to corner design, and fold as before. In this case, the sections will fit in between the corner designs, so will still fit. If the border across the top has different length sections from the side border, then you may have to adjust. You could leave a gap between sections, or add another section by folding differently. I hope this all makes sense.

i have a zero center measuring tape that i'm able to use for most of my quilts.

the length is 120 inches and the zero is in the center and it measures out 60 inches in each direction.

i square my quilt first. then i use this measuring tape to mark along the quilt on all 4 sides at the same intervals. if its an open breezy type of pattern i might mark at every 6 or 8 inches depending on the length of the quilt.

if its a tight complex quilting pattern i might mark the quilt every 2 inches. this allows you to have the exact same motif land in the exact same spot on each side of the borders (if you happen to be an OCD kinda person).

i only go to this much trouble when there isn't a stencil available on the market that i can use.

i use plastic stencils and paper stencils. i like the software quilting designs by quiltmaker. they make 6 different programs (the 7th will be out soon).

http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/Quilting/Quilting.asp

they cost about the price of 2 plastic stencils except with the software you can size the stencil to whatever size you like and then print it out on paper, attach to the quilt, and stitch.

here's a pic of one of the quilt maker stencils that i sized to fit my block. it has a center feature and then a scroll around it.

this is the master copy that i keep beside me while i quilt because i marked it with the start, the direction to travel in, and where to stop.

i just tape it to my quilt with painters tape and quilt right thru it. if i'm working on a quilt that i don't want to wash when i'm done i'll needle punch the paper and then pounce the design onto the quilt.

Hi Klue, where did you find a zero center measuring tape. That sounds like something good to have.

Deb

i got mine at LQS but here's one i found online

http://www.lovetoquilt.com/longarm_q...ero_center.htm

here's another that goes 7 feet in each direction

http://www.everythingquilts.com/quil...ment-tape.aspx

here's another 60 inch - you have to scroll towards the bottom of the page. the price is the same but shipping might be cheaper


http://www.ericas.com/quilting/tools/misctools.htm

there's a new book on the market that teaches you to quilt without any markings at all and it uses an adhesive measuring tape.

here's a link

http://www.cottonclub.com/cgi-bin/St...menu-2400.html

http://www.cottonclub.com/cgi-bin/St...menu-1700.html