funny! i am not bothered by quilts being squared up either..but with panels, your starting out unsquared! lol! at least i start out with squared up blocks..how they end up uneven..is the washer or dryers fault..not mine..oh no..not me! ROFL!

It's a beautiful panel. If you are going to put several "borders" on this then spread the extra needed to square it over them all. Don't try to do it with just one border. The wider the "border" the more you can be off true and not notice so add more of the extra in the wider areas and less in the narrower ones.

For what it is worth that is what I think I would do.

first, I have started with wetting it pretty good and pinned it to the cutting mat to try to square it up. It seems to give pretty good. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I have pinned mine down (or tape them down) squared and sprayed with spray starch. Let it dry and they will block up nicely. Check out this site. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIjZqABo2NY&NR=1

That's a beautiful panel.

I had a similar problem recently. I just pretended like it was correct and cut a 1/4" seam allowance all the way around it and I sewed on borders that it wouldn't be obvious. You could make some wonky stars and use different block sizes of the angels and put them inbetween the wonky stars.

Don't stress, only in a quilt show will they take a tape measure to the quilts. And after it's washed, no one will be able to tell anyway.

If it was me and that was my panel, I would just use that striped fabric and make a mitered border around it like a frame and make it a wall hanging. It's an absolutely gorgeous panel.

Can you trim the blue (or black - what ever it is... LOL) back so it is 1/4" all the way around? Then when you sew on the borders, only the gold will show. It is a really pretty panel though.
I also bought panels and found them to be off too. No amount of starching and stretching when I ironed helped, so I just did the best I could and when it was done, it didn't really show that much. Good luck!

You can do one of two things: 1: trim a graduation so it isn't so noticable, meaning ie: go from 3/16" at the top to 1/4" on the bottom. 2: when you do your 1st border strip, do the same thing but in reverse, have the smaller width at the top and the wider at the bottom. Clear as mud right? I hope this helps. When I first started quilting, baby panels were the rage and none of them were straight...this worked quite nicely.

you should be able to press it into shape. damp it down and stretch it as you iron it dry. just be careful you don't stretch it to far and end up with it being out the other way. I have staightened many things this way.

Get a large piece of styrofoam, cardboard or you can put towels on your bed. Wet the panel and pin it square until it dries. Panels are seldom ever square so you have to either compensate (which doesn't work well and is frustrating) or block them the same way you would block knitted or crocheted items. Personally I use my design board because I know it's square and I can use pins on it easily. Depending on what you square it up on you can use your iron or a hair dryer to help it dry quickly.

My suggestion also. Usually works.