A question about multiple borders
 

I almost always add multiple borders to my quilt tops. Sometimes I might have as many as four borders. I hate doing the sewing and measuring, I'm always off somehow. I have wondered many times why I can't just sew the border fabrics together in a strip and then handle it as just one piece of fabric. Because so many of my best ideas have flaws in them, I thought I would ask you more experienced quilters why this isn't a good idea. I have never seen it in any of the quilt books I've bought but that doesn't mean it's not OK to do. Please help me out here. Thanks.

I do multiple borders together; it seems like a good idea to me, too. You might have to miter the corners to get the look you want - otherwise the inner borders will reach out to the outside edges when you attach the ends. I feel like I've seen this in books before, although I can't remember where. Give it a try and see how you like it!

When I have two borders and want to miter the corners, I sew my borders together as a strip pieced unit and handle it as one unit. I typically don't do it that way for squared-off borders but I don't have a valid reason why. Most likely it's because after I add a border, I stop to ponder if it needs something else or if it's time to call it done.

I always sew all of my borders together before attaching because I miter them and it is so much easier this way.

When sewing on multiple borders as a strip set you must miter the corners or you can stop them with a border cornerstone. If you don't miter you end up with your strip set extending all the way out to the edge of the quilt instead of each color in the strip turning the corner at a 90 degree angle.

Here is a link on a google search on how to miter borders, lots of tutorials out there.
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...quilt%20border

Edited to add, I just found a tute for your particular situation with lots of pics.

http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/2009/08...-tutorial.html

If mitering the corners, then yes, I sew them together and treat as one unit. But if not, then I sew them on individually. I measure my quilt through the center - both horizontally and vertically - to get my border measurement and then ease or stretch a bit to get them to match my quilt edge.

You just need to decide how to do the corners. You can miter them, use a pieced or plain corner block, or do a quarter log cabin block to make your individual borders meet.

If you miter the corners, be aware that you need a *lot* of extra fabric -- basically the width of your 4 borders pieced together times 2 (one for each side) plus at least a couple of extra inches for safety. (Oh, and remember for the last two it's *4* times the pieced border because your second border measurements have to include the length added by the first two borders.)

A lot of people find mitering to be difficult. Because the sewn edges are all bias, there is a tendency to stretch them out of shape while you work with them. Once you get some experience with them, mitered corners are not a problem, but if you are already having issues with the measuring and sewing of borders, you might find mitering very frustrating.

You might want to focus instead on eliminating the problems you have with measuring and cutting the borders. Probably the easiest I have seen for cutting is to lay the border fabric along the middle of the quilt (quilt can be folded at the middle or not), cut a border to exactly match that middle, then cut the other border to exactly match the first cut. Fold both borders and the quilt in half and iron in a crease (or place a pin) at the halfway mark. Fold again to find the quarter marks. Pin ends and creases together before sewing, including extra pins between your crease marks. Iron the seams of the first two borders flat, then go through the same process again with the quilt for the remaining two borders. On the one hand it's a few extra steps to do this for four borders; however, when you sew all the borders together first and then have to miter, that last step of mitering can cause you to pull out your hair. (Do not ask me how I know this. I will admit to mitering multiple borders exactly once.)

This has been an interesting post as I have often wondered about sewing more than one border together...but I have not yet tried any mitering...I do my borders exactly the way Prism99 explains.

I did visit jaybirdquilts.com and saved the tutorial that Feline suggested. What a great blog Julie has...

I have done it where I sewed the borders together but left the last few inches of each border open. Then I attached it to the top and attached each border in succession at the ends so That it looked just the same as though you had attached them one by one. I did not miter the corners. It took a bit of figuring on paper to figure out the length of each successive border but it worked just fine and it was sure a lot easier than attaching them one by one!

Wow ! Thanks so much for all these great suggestions, I will learn how to miter ASAP. I never even thought of some of the things you all discussed. That's what is so great about having this forum. Thanks everyone.

Add boarers after main is quilted
 

When adding boarders I do them after quilting is done. This way it's quilted through. If I want boarder quilted I do it before adding next boarder. It works great for me.

i have done as many as 3 borders to a total of maybe 6 inches, and always do a mitered corner. Once you get the hang of how to do this, it is fairly simple.

I recently purchased "Quilting for People Who Still Don't Have Time to Quilt" by Marti Michell from Amazon. She has instructions for adding several types of borders (1) traditional types before it is sandwiched and quilted, and (2) modified quilt-as-you-sew borders. In the number 2 method, instead of adding borders to the quilt the traditional way and having to squish the entire quilt through the sewing machine, only the patchwork interior of the quilt is quilted. After that section is quilted, borders are added to the quilt as you normally would except you sew through the batting and backing at the same time. She says: "The point is, you have to make a seam to add the border fabric to the quilt top, so why not quilt at the same time?" I haven't made any of the quilts in this book yet, but there are quite a lot of them I like and that are now on my "to do" list.

Great question Wanabee Quiltin! All of the answers are very helpful as well as the tutorial suggested.

Tartan, and others, have given you the best answer. I love multiple borders and just allow extra fabric to let me miter the corners for a smooth look.