I make two copies of my quilt pattern, one to write on and one to look at. I never pick out border or backing till I'm finished with the quilt top. I always keep all my stuff together for a quilt, even all the scraps.

I never remember to think about border fabric when buying fabric for a project then have to go on a hunt. I am to excited to get started on a project to think about the border.
Another hard lesson I learned was to pin those seams underneath that you don't see while sewing rows together-what a mess that can be.

It can be really nice to put a strip of contrasting fabric somewhere near the middle of your back.
It looks like you planned it.

Best to never blow into the machine. It just drives the lint deeper and puts moisture where you definitely don't want it. A small vacuum works better.

Pictures have helped me too! I recently took a few pics of the cut fabric that I had arranged in advance for a baby quilt. While piecing and putting together I referred to my pics several times and did catch myself a few times about to piece out of order! I might add that I'm a very new quilter so I'm sure I won't depend as much over time on pictures but it's sure helped so far.

Christine

do not stretch border fabric on as you sew it on a quilt. Recently worked with a quilt that had borders were so wavy there was no straightening it. Border was removed, pressed with lightweight interfacing on it. Each border was 1.5 inches short! Haven't quilted that one yet...

Watson, hopefully you discovered your mistake before it was on the LA. This spring, I loaded a queen size quilt on a LA that I rent and when I rolled to the bottom, it was just a couple of inches too short to finish quilting. I had to finish it at home on my DSM after adding a strip so I could finish quilting the border.

jmoore...luckily, I discovered it before I did anything with it.

This quilt will be quilted on my DSM...don't trust myself yet to do good work on the LA and have worked too hard on it to mess it up! (more)

Watson

That my floor is not clean enough to lay out my quilt and pin it.

You and me both!! Thanks for the chuckle :D