ShirlinAZ

Measure, measure, measure! Patterns are guidance and never absolutes.

ShirlinAZ

Trimming a small amount of excess may be OK, depending on your blocks. You don't want to cut the points off of stars or triangles, for example. If you have to shorten one side only, try to trim top and bottom equally while keeping your corners as square as possible.

Since you already cut the binding strips I assume you are doing 4 pieces that meet in the corner. If your strips are too short you can always switch to a continuous binding with mitered corners. There are lots of tutorials to help you do this. You will just neet to sew your binding strips together and add 1 more strip to be sure you have enough to work with. If your cut strips are longer than needed you can just shorten them.

Sometimes I get waves in my borders and have no idea why. Most of the time it comes from trying to ease or stretch one fabric to meet another. You'll know a wave when you get it because there is no way both sides of the seam will lay flat.

We all make these mistakes. Hopefully we learn from them.

Baloonatic

You may want to measure your quilt to make sure that it is 42 1/2 inches before you cut your border...

vegasgal47

What is the downside to trimming a small excess off the borders? Why do you have to measure exactly rather than having them longer and trimming the excess off like when putting together a log cabin block? Just curious.

I just finished my top! As it turned out, after I trimmed off the selvedge, the one strip was the exact size I needed! Whew. Glad it wasn't shorter. The other was slightly (less than 1/4") longer. I will make sure I don't pre-cut my borders the next time. Thanks everyone for that tip.

I've finally got down the miter corners for binding. I do get a little confused joining the binding at the end but I use Fons and Porters tool and watch their video. LOL

Now I have to buy the backing and binding fabric so I can finish it.

I sure like using pre-cuts. I used a charm pack for this one. The last quilt I did I had to cut 144 5" squares from fat quarters. Still need to sandwich it and quilt it. I'm a bit nervous. I've never done one so large.

Thanks again!

ShirlinAZ

Sounds like you really did great!

There is no problem trimming excess off your borders. I personally don't like to find that I cut my burders a little shorter than I needed, which has happened. I hate piecing borders unless I can make them all look like I planned them that way, so I have to redesign and use cornerstones or piano keys if I don't have enough fabric to cut all new one piece borders.

You got it right, and that's all that counts.

matraina

Put your selvages together away from you. Then fold one more time toward the selvages, then cut.

charlie 1940

Most fabric is 42 1/2 to 44 inches wide from salvage to salvage. You only need to leave your fabric folded in half, fold in half by pulling the salvage edges to meet the center fold; straighten the cut edge and then cut a 5" strip. Open it up and you will have a piece approximately 5" x 42 1/2". Some times the instructions do not need exactly 42 1/2" depending on how it is being used. Keep quilting and enjoying. Charlie1940

dublb

I agree' I've learned more from this site in 1 yr than 5 yrs before!!!

Eileen

I always keep a calculator on my cutting table for just this type of info. Measure or figure twice, cut once, unless you cut wrong. Have done that too many times. LOL.

Mae

The borders help to keep the quilt squared up. If one side is longer than the opposite one, it will not have square corners. It is important to measure the quilt on the sides for the next border strip and through the center in the same direction and take an average of the three measurements. This will give you the length you need to cut for those two sides. Then mark the centers of the border pieces and the quilt sides with straight pins so they can be matched up before you sew. You can mark it in fourths as well.

Wavy borders are caused by either stretching the quilt to fit a longer border or by cutting the borders on the crossgrain and stretching the bias.