cathyvv

Check that your tension is not too tight. I Found out the hard way that too tight tension causes tiny ruffling of the border, and that stretches the fabric out. I had to remove a border that had been sewn on with too tight tension. When I measured the removed border off the quilt, it was 2 inches longer than the quilt.

You could say that I learned my lesson...and you'd be right.

Also, when adding borders on a quilt, I start sewing them from the center to one end, then reverse and sew the rest - also starting at the center - of the border to the end. It has really helped me with wavy borders.

Rhonda K

Great suggestions for your borders. We are cheering you on with this project!

Barb in Louisiana

I do all the measuring and pinning that everyone else does. And if, there are a lot of seams on the edge, I will run a staystitch around the edge to keep it from stretching or the edge of the seams from coming undone. When I sew, I place the pieced side down and put the long border on the top. Even though I have pinned like crazy, I still maintain a little bit of pull on the fabrics so that both the top and bottom feed equally. Until I figured out that I had to keep the fabrics in sync with the pull method, I thought about getting a Pfaff or a Bernina so I could have the even feed without using a walking foot. Now I don't need it.

Jingle

What works for me, and I have made 400 - 500 quilts of different sizes.

I lay a border strip In the center of quilt top, up & down for side borders. I gently smooth it down, mark and cut on this line. I lay other side border strip on table and gently smooth it out, lay 1st strip on top, gently smooth, mark, cut on that line. I fold sides in half put in straight pin, fold ends to center pin on each side. I pin quilt top the same. match up pins, hold at pins making sure the edges stay together then sew borders on top of quilt edge. After those are sewn on and pressed I make the end borders the same. Absolutely smooth borders, no math or stuff. I square up blocks as I go.

Of course, typing this out takes much longer than doing it. I am sure there are youtube videos showing how to do this. I am sure Lynette Jensen has this in her books. I used her books to learn a lot of things from.

cathyvv

Oh, my! That seems like so much work! But it is the right thing to do...good thing no one watches me piece a quilt!

I do think I might try that on quilts with bias edges, though.

copycat

Here is the link with great tips for borders: https://www.diaryofaquilter.com/2010...rders-tip.html
I hope this helps you!

Stitchnripper

this is how I do it too. I can’t remember how I learned it. Works great.

maviskw

I'm surprised no one has mentioned measuring the length of the quilt in three places: near the top and bottom and through the center. Average these three measurments and cut the two side borders to this length. Pin the top and bottom and put another pin in the middle, matching the middle of the quilt top. Add pins to ease in any extra. Sew the side borders on.

Then measure the width of what you have now, including the side borders. Measure top, bottom and center. Cut borders to the average of those measurements. Pin top, bottom and center and ease in to fit.

I hope you can see the importance of measuring in three places to get the length of the border strips.

Suz

After much measuring, etc, I think the most important suggestion I have is to use your walking foot. Also reduce the pressure on the foot. You are working with thickness and need to accommodate same.

L'il Chickadee

When tackling borders I think of the Prairie skirt with all the ruffled tiers. Every tier takes the increase of the one above it and expands even more until there is a full skirt at the bottom hem. All the pinning and measuring of the quilt top is to keep that from happening. If the basic quilt top is a little wavy, the first border gets more wavy and so on until the whole thing is flapping like a bird.

I've been known to sew a staystitch around the top and if that doesn't lay the quilt top flat I pull the bottom thread like I want to make a ruffle. Then pulling the ruffle back out always ends up with a slightly pulled stitch line that hopefully takes out that wavy edge. I press the quilt top and check again to be sure it lies absolutely flat.

Also, I read in an old quilt magazine about sewing an 1/8 inch wide tape around the edge and then ironing. The tape would shrink and pull in the edge of the top. Filed that away in my memory banks except for one minor detail. What kind of tape was to be used. Possibly Rayon? All I remember is that it was white and came off a Christmas ribbon type spool.

So basically the goal is to get the pieced top right before adding a border. Then do the measuring and pinning stuff to keep control as borders are added.

Angela Walters always keeps a glass of wine handy, too.