What is the "rule" for quilt borders?
01-01-2019, 01:25 PM
#21
Super Member
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Pacific NW
Posts: 9,556
I'm glad someone posted the Fibonacci sequence, as I read through the thread I was positive that's what the OP was looking for.
Isn't it funny how just a simple word can get so many people's hackles raised? I used the word "vendor" to describe a customer to my co-worker a week ago, she got very irritated with me because he doesn't supply any goods or services to us. But his address is stored in the database that our accounting software has labeled "vendors".
Isn't it funny how just a simple word can get so many people's hackles raised? I used the word "vendor" to describe a customer to my co-worker a week ago, she got very irritated with me because he doesn't supply any goods or services to us. But his address is stored in the database that our accounting software has labeled "vendors".
01-01-2019, 06:35 PM
#22
Power Poster
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Southern USA
Posts: 16,384
I took a workshop and we made a quilt using the Fibonacci number sequence. It was a weekend of pure brain hurt. I remember a square divided in two squares and then we added the two sizes together to get the next square and so on. Lots of numbers. I forgot the instructor's name but she was a math geek and had a good class. I gave up the math part and cut the squares to fit as I thought looked right. My quilt looked the same as the others that did the math problems. I trusted what I thought looked pleasing and had a better time sewing.
01-02-2019, 07:57 AM
#24
Super Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 1,857
It is your quilt - so you get to make the rules!!! lay out the borders and the top on a bed top and audition them. Leave them for the day and every time you walk into the room, register your reaction. One of them will continue to draw your eye and make you smile - THAT'S THE ONE TO USE.
01-02-2019, 10:16 AM
#25
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Central Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA
Posts: 7,695
The “rule” (there are rules? Yup, you make them for you.) that I follow is, I measure how much I need to add to the quilt for the drop I want on the bed I am making the quilt for. I take that number, and divide it by the number of borders I want to use. This gives me a quilt exactly the size I want. If it is not bed size, I make the borders the way I like the look of them. I take a picture of the quilt with audition border fabrics until I am happy with a certain look.
01-02-2019, 11:48 AM
#26
Super Member
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Pacific NW
Posts: 9,556
I took a workshop and we made a quilt using the Fibonacci number sequence. It was a weekend of pure brain hurt. I gave up the math part and cut the squares to fit as I thought looked right. My quilt looked the same as the others that did the math problems. I trusted what I thought looked pleasing and had a better time sewing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_ZHsk0-eF0
What's amazing is this stuff comes naturally and automatically to (most) humans. Our brains seem to gravitate towards the "Golden Rule" and find it pleasing, which is probably why you didn't need to do the math.
01-02-2019, 08:51 PM
#27
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: kansas
Posts: 6,407
Using the Fibonacci sequence will help you to have borders that are pleasingly well-balanced to the eye. Here are a few websites that explain:
http://thunderbayquilters.org/?page_id=381 Scroll down to where it says "Border Widths" It gives a very good explanation of the Fibonacci sequence, also known as the golden rule.
https://comestitchwithme.com/2014/09...h-for-a-quilt/
http://thunderbayquilters.org/?page_id=381 Scroll down to where it says "Border Widths" It gives a very good explanation of the Fibonacci sequence, also known as the golden rule.
https://comestitchwithme.com/2014/09...h-for-a-quilt/
01-03-2019, 07:40 AM
#28
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: California
Posts: 177
I have a printout of the Fibonacci sequence, and very rarely will refer to it if I can't make a decision on widths. It is not really a quilting rule. Just a tool to help determine what is pleasing via mathmatics.
01-04-2019, 07:27 AM
#29
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Colorado
Posts: 580
I agree with themadpatter. Too many peoples hackles get raised with the word "rule" but as mad pointed out the Fibonacci sequence, also known as the golden ratio (and also the golden rule, which I think the OP was striving to get the answer for) is most pleasing to the eye and appears in nature over and over again from seashells to sunflowers (hence why most find it appealing to the eye yet don't even know why, it is almost as though we are hard wired for it) Here is an excellent article written by Jinny Beyer regarding it and calculating border widths. https://jinnybeyer.com/golden-ratio-...s-for-borders/
Using the Fibonacci sequence will help you to have borders that are pleasingly well-balanced to the eye. Here are a few websites that explain:
http://thunderbayquilters.org/?page_id=381 Scroll down to where it says "Border Widths" It gives a very good explanation of the Fibonacci sequence, also known as the golden rule.
https://comestitchwithme.com/2014/09...h-for-a-quilt/
http://thunderbayquilters.org/?page_id=381 Scroll down to where it says "Border Widths" It gives a very good explanation of the Fibonacci sequence, also known as the golden rule.
https://comestitchwithme.com/2014/09...h-for-a-quilt/
Interesting articles. I generally decide on my borders in the manner most others referenced. I know how big I want my quilt to be, so I figure out how much border I need to get there, then I divide that out depending on what I think looks pleasing. Interesting all the same to read about ratios and how they occur in nature. It's a good starting off point.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
bearisgray
General Chit-Chat (non-quilting talk)
65
02-01-2024 09:04 AM
