cizzors

I understand why we need to square a top before borders. What I don't understand is when you measure across the middle of the top, you are to "make adjustments" as needed.

What if some of the pieces in a block are, say, 1/8" or even 1/4" off? I don't understand the "adjusting" part. What am I adjusting? Hope you can understand what I'm asking.

kathy

you should take 6 measurements, 3 from top to bottom and three across, average the 3 and use that as your measurement for the borders, you may have to push or pull 1/4" to make it fit but that's easy to do sonce it's spread out over the distance

PaperPrincess

If the quilt is large, when you square it up, you might just be getting square corners. It's really hard to get the whole thing on a true square. When you measure the quilt the way kathy explains, this will even out any discrepancies. It is pretty amazing, a large quilt that looks square usually has one side that's bigger than the others. Well, mine are anyway ;-)

Montana34

I found out on my last quilt that after measuring the three measurements and cutting my border fabric to that average number that I then needed to fold my border in half and pin, and fold from each end to the middle and pin so that I have four equally spaced marked points. then I pinned them to the quilt in the same measured spots on the quilt. This allows you to ease in any measurement discrepancy in quarters instead of at the end of the sewing on of the border. I did not do this at first and ended up with too much to ease in at the end, even using a walking foot. It was frustrating.

I hope that made sense. If anyone else can explain better that would be great.

PaperPrincess

You did a great job of explaining easing a seam. Maybe because I did garment sewing first, this is how I always do my borders. Just force of habit. The excess needs to be eased along the entire length of the seam, not just the end.