Help me with my dilemma
 

I am working on a baby quilt (there's a story about why it has birds) and am having trouble with a little issue related to the final border. The border is a blender of sorts and has a linear pattern to it. The problem is the fabric was printed so if it is cut on the straight grain the lines do not line up properly. I think you'll see what I mean when you look at the picture. So, what would you do- cut following the line, but off-grain, or cut on-grain and let the line be off? One more note- in the picture of the quilt the colors are such that it looks like the border doesn’t blend with the colors of the quilt, but it does. Thank you in advance for your opinion.

Gorgeous quilt, anorton. I would cut off grain so that the pattern looks straight.

I would hand cut it to make sure it looks good to me.

I'd fight with myself that it would be ok but eventually I'd give in and would fussy cut it to follow the pattern. This sort of thing actually happens quite a lot with all sorts of prints and I've had to deal with it before... Sometimes you don't even notice there is a diagonal drift/pattern until you see that 3 yard long piece of border cut 8" or whatever wide.

In fact we had a discussion about it in my small group last week. I had a choice between three different fabrics, one was quite sweet, one wasn't really the right color and would drag the project down, and one is rather linear and we all decided was the best choice if I was going to follow the pattern and not the grain of the fabric. It will take a bit more work and effort, but colorwise it was the best of the three.

I'm usually big on cutting on the straight of grain especially on a border, but a good quality modern woven fabric shouldn't really matter much if at all. I fussy cut all the time with no attention to the grain.

The other idea is if it is going to be off, I skew it off even more. A print like that maybe I'd cut into long wedges and sew back together even.

Does the picture show the border already on the quilt? If so, it looks fine.

I agree, if it bothers you, change it to fussy cut. It looks great the way it is. Love, love, love the birds!

i like it the way it is, too

Love the birds. I'm with everyone else. If those borders are already on, I don't think the pattern is off enough to worry about it. But anytime a print like that is very off, I also cut off grain so the print is straight. If it's only slightly off and won't matter, I cut as usual and don't concern myself with it.

I would take it off and recut it to be straight with the print.