Border near disaster
 

I'm still struggling with this twinned border from Janet Kime's book, Border workbook.

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Dearest Iceblossom is trying to help as she has used this book. Apparently my quilt is one inch wider on the top than the bottom. The firsst three sides went well, but I can't seem to get this last one to fit. I'm sure there is a protocol of how to approach this. Probably something like...make sure the quilt measures square which mine does not. Yes, huge pucker on the right side in red corner.

Thoughts please.

It's such a pain when our projects have problems. It is going to be gorgeous. Let's look at a couple of options.

Re-check the blocks in the row that is off. Are they squared up to size? What about the sashing borders? Is each block of the twine border the correct size?

What is the measurement in the center of the quilt? How far off the measurements from center?

When you added the red sashing did you measure, pin across the edges? These borders can stretch the quilt edge. It might work to check that red sashing/border first, stay stitch it, re-pin and stitch back on.

It may involve from ripping and adjusting to get this one done.

PS: You may be able to adjust the twine border. Cut the strips just a little smaller in each one until you get the adjusted size you need.

Good luck and best wishes. You will get there!

Ok, now that I see it I think the easiest fix is to slightly trim/piece the red to give you just a bit of skew and work the rest of the discrepancy out/in by tugging. Even a slight diagonal adds inches over a long distance.

The hard thing is you already have the other sides on -- and they look lovely. To do it with the points touching is a master move and I'm not surprised that some issue crept in. Is much easier to do "floating" with the points not touching and coping strips.

Part of the idea of the coping strips is not just going from a square to diagonal set as I mentioned before, but also to square up projects. Like in a t-shirt quilt or a sampler where all the blocks aren't the same size, what you do is frame them to the correct size and while doing that you can straighten them out.

You may not be enjoying this project much right now but step back, take a deep breath and acknowledge that it is a beautiful piece. Because it is :)

edit: Ooo ooo ooo, RhondaK has a wonderful idea, can you make just a couple of the link sections a hair bigger/smaller and just replace maybe 3-6 units of the border that way? That would be pretty sweet and that's why we share our ideas!

The only thing I could think of - and have no idea of whether it would work or not -

Center each border - and then "piece in" whatever would be necessary at the corners to make it work.

or

On the border(s) that are "short/skimpy" - resew them in several places with a slightly smaller seam allowance and you might be able to "recover" that inch? But I don't know if that would mess up the points.

Interesting/attractive border, by the way.

I suggest to get the corner twine blocks to match each side border first.

Adjust the inside twine blocks to size. Do you need them larger or smaller?

If smaller, you may be able to just stitch a slightly wider seam...no ripping needed.

Your quilt is lovely. Is your quilt a rectangle? Is it possible that you have one of the 'sides' on the wrong side?

I may not be able to add any other thoughts or recommendations to fixing the problem and so many good ones are already offered. What I can add is encouragement that you will get it worked out and your quilt will be lovely. Keep in mind only you will notice the discrepancy in the quilt. It is so beautiful to start with and it will be when it is finished. Also know that just about all of us have been where you are now. I just finished a quilt that I pictured here a couple weeks ago that was off by 2-3" so I cut off half a block to make it right. I doubt very much anyone who saw this quilt would notice it without very careful examination of the quilt. Yours is such a beautiful quilt that all of us will only see the beauty of it as we do now.

Rip out the seam and pin the border to the quilt. Matching both ends. Ease it together when you sew it. I would probably trim each side 1/2" just because. Love the quilt and the border. I have that book. Never used it. LOL.

I think the idea of working from the corners to the center of each side might work out better than trying to "fix" at the corner like I first thought.

Plus, an adjustment would show a lot less in the middle of a side than at a corner.