carol45

I've noticed that somehow my borders tend to not be straight when I'm finishing my quilt. It's not a very pronounced problem, but I'd like to know if anyone has an idea why this might be happening. I square things up pretty carefully, and yet the corners tend to bend out. If you look at this panel quilt, you can see in the upper right hand corner, the orange border is not at a right angle, but is a bit distorted. Any thoughts about how I managed to do this?
Thanks in advance.

sewingsuz

It is so cute!

meyert

I do see what you are talking about - and as you said its not very pronounced. I don't have any answers as I have done this myself so I will be watching for what answers you receive

your quilt is adorable!

quiltingshorttimer

when you say the "orange border" are you talking about the border between the 2 blues or the binding? Was this a panel? I find that many panels are not printed totally square on the fabric or stretch when wrapped on the bolt. So even when you square up the panel by the design, the threads may not be squared and then when you quilt it pulls it a little more off square.

Very cute quilt though!

carol45

I'm talking about the border between the 2 blues. I squared the panel before I put the orange border on it, but the orange seems to have distorted somehow when I added the dark blue border. This has happened to me with other quilts as well.

Tartan

Quilting can cause distortions. I quite often put a big birder around my pieced top so I can trim my quilt square and you can't really tell if I need to trim a little more off one edge.

cathyvv

Squaring is not something I do well, so unless the quilt is very distorted, I leave it. I have noticed that quilts made after I got my accuquilt cutter are more square, though.

Melanie Rudy

When you are putting on borders you need to take the measurement from the centre of your quilt. Cut your border this length. Ease the border into the sides of the quilt top. This will keep your borders and your quilt square.

ArtsyOne

This happens to me every single time too. Like yours, the corners seem to stretch out a little. My quilts usually have 3 borders. I square off the corners of each border before I attach the next one. I think the strips just stretch out from the process of sewing.

quilterpurpledog

Measuring for the borders is very important and those measurements do need to be done in the centers of the quilt. Repeat for each direction and for each additional border. Cut the border section and pin it to your quilt starting in the center of each side. Then sew it. You get the distorted corners when you sew lengths of borders to quilt without pinning. The fabric on the bottom (feed dog side) when sewing always take up more fabric than the top (needle side). You prevent this by pinning carefully from the center. If I am doing a long border I divide the quilt and the border in quarters.