Need advice with border malfunction
 

I'm still very much a newbie, working on my second quilt, and I've run into a situation where I need the advice of you more experienced quilters. I have a pieced border (three strips), and I'm mitering the corners. The first corner turned out fine. The second corner, I screwed up the alignment, and the corner doesn't lay completely flat. The problem is, I didn't realize this until after I had cut away the excess fabric. (Lesson learned... check first, then cut.)

My instinct is to pull out the seam ripper and go at it again. Should I do that, though, now that I've cut away the excess fabric? Or will I make things worse? As it is, there are a few little ripples that I think I can disguise somewhat with strategic quilting.

If you ripped the seams out to fix them, will there be enough fabric to sew them back together even if your seam allowance was only 1/8"? If so, I'd do that.

If you quilt heavily along your borders in an intricate pattern or even a close meander and then it lays flat, why go thru the ripping? Unless you are wanting to quilt a stitch in the ditch or something like that pattern.

I'm planning to quilt snowflakes and swirly patterns over the whole quilt, including the border, so I could definitely find a way to tamp down the wavy bits.

I don't know whether there would be enough or not. That's the fear I'm having. I'm not sure how to figure that out in advance.

Unless the quilt police inspect on a regular basis at your home I wouldn't rip.

If it really bothers you, change the corners to blocks. I found my first few miters tricky. Now I measure and cut the angle before I sew the border on. Then I only need to match edges.

You know Jenel, you are a newbie and this is just one of many things you will teach yourself. The problem is in how much pull does it have? Is washing going to make it worse when it shrinks? Plus, even if you quilt it down, these problems make your quilt cup when quilted (according to how much tighter the outside seam is). One thing you can do is just make setting blocks for the corners. It really is all according to how bad you think it is. My first quilt was a log cabin - it was gorgeous, at least I thought so. I decided to machine embroider quilt it. Well machine embroider quilting is rather heavy and they go over the same design line many times. Many of my blocks were off register, but I still love this quilt. I have since machine embroidered my quilts in a quilt pattern and they've turned out well. I learned to look at the em design first and decide if it is light enough. It all comes with doing. Consider them design inspirations when you have to change a design because of a mistake - booboo-oops.

I'm in love with the mitered corners, so I won't do the corner blocks. But I love your method of measuring and cutting in advance. It seems like a more precise way to do miters. Thank you!