I'm making a crib quilt for a friend. I want the finished size to be about 40"x54" to accomodate the size of a crib mattress and allow for a 6" drop (the thickness of the mattress). I have completed 12 - 7"squares using Moda Funky Monkey prints in a checkerboard pattern (5" squares with 1" border). I want to use the red & brown polka dot print in the border but to get the finished size, the border will have to be 9" wide. I've tried adding a 1" brown border (it looks black in the photo) but the polka dot border still looks too wide to me. If I add another row of 7" blocks, the border is too narrow. I've also wondered about adding some sort of applique over the polka dot border. I've also thought about remaking the squares in a different size. Any suggestions?

Just a warning Babies should have nothing in their cribs except a tight fitting sheet no blankets, no bumper pads. Make it a tummy time blanket for on the floor. Sorry I worked with babies and suffocation and SIDS is a big concern of mine.
It is a darling quilt and would be fun for baby monitored on the floor.

I think I would leave the blocks as they are and add mutiple borders of different fabrics, different widths. Maybe use some of the fabric used around the blocks as one of the borders.

That's beautiful. I would add a red outer border and then another color, just one smaller than the other. You can get the length and width you want that way.

add a 1 1/2" brown boarder and then a 2-3" cream or off white boarder (which ever would look best) then the polka dot boarder. you need to make sure that the all in balance with the sizes. so if you have 9" worth of boarder space a 1 1/2" inner boarder a 2 1/2" middle and a 5" outer boarder will all look good and in balance. but it is up to you. what I like to do is take a couple of pics and make a slide show on the computer of my different options and let it play for awhile and see what hits me as the best way to go. but that is just me.

Thanks for the suggestions. Sahm4605 brought up something I had never thought of - love the idea of the "slide show" to see what "feels" right. Made a trip to my LQS today to see if I could find fabric for additional borders. It's always so nice to bounce ideas off other quilters (DH tries but his blank looks, or off-the-wall suggestions, tell me he doesn't have a clue as to quilting concepts). Found some wonderful brown & cream stripe that goes well with the brown texture print in my squares - so now I can have a narrow border of the polka dots, the brown/cream stripe border, and then repeat the polka dots in a wider outside border- and I found a wide red rick rack (about 1-1/8") to but on top of the brown stripe. Can't wait to put it all together!!!