Let’s Talk About Borders

Let’s talk about quilt borders. 

I have two schools of thought concerning quilt borders.  First school – those quilters who consider their borders an integral part of their quilt, as important as the center.  Much care and consideration go into their design and color placement.  Second school – those quilters who breathe a sigh of relief that the quilt making process is over.  They cut the borders out, sew them on, and then send the quilt to the long armer or quilt it themselves.  Which school of thought is wrong?

The answer is….

Neither of them. 

Borders, like a lot of quilt making, is an extremely personal decision.  The final design of your border may depend on if the quilt is made for a special occasion – such as a birthday or wedding.  The design may depend on if the quilt is show-bound or destined to live on the back of the couch to wrap up in while you watch TV.  My school of thought about borders is this:  They are the punctuation marks of your quilt.  They are the end of the sentence.  They are the last impression of your quilt making skills.  Some quilts are destined to have exclamation point borders.  These quilts were made for quilt show competitions or for special occasions.  Then some need borders which are simply periods. These are cuddle quilts and play quilts and maybe even some bed quilts.  What I want to do with this blog is make sure you understand what borders are used for and how to put borders on correctly – any type of borders, from the fancy-schmancy applique ones to the plain strips of fabric. 

In the world of quilting, borders did not really come into play until around the twentieth century.  Before that time, most quilts were made from necessity.  They were made to keep folks warm on cold nights. There wasn’t a lot of extra money or fabric to make borders or sometimes even for sashing.  If borders were on a quilt pre-twentieth century, most of the time they looked something like this:

The quilt was appliqued and designed for special use, such as the best quilt in a household or a bridal quilt.  Borders were not something used willy-nilly on all quilts.  Of course now-a-days, we’re used to quilts with borders and quilts without borders.  I must admit that during my career as a quilter, I’ve made very few quilts without borders.  Most of those have been on the small-ish size.  With this in mind, I began to wonder exactly why we put borders on most quilts now.  For most of us, we either have enough fabric to make borders or we have the funds to purchase that fabric.  But having either or both should not be the final impetus to put borders on a quilt.  Are there construction reasons to add borders to your quilt? 

Well…yes.  There are some valid reasons to add those borders.  The first reason deals with our old friend, bias.  If a quilt is constructed with blocks which have some bias on the outside edges, borders will go a long way in stabilizing the bias.  As a matter of fact, if there’s a lot of bias involved along those outside edges, you may want to cut the borders out along the length of fabric instead of across the width of fabric.  The length of fabric has the least amount of stretch of any fabric cut and can hold that bias really steady. 

The second reason is it helps keep the quilt square.  Squaring up a quilt is defined as “The process of making sure your quilt has 90-degree corners, borders are straight and flat, and the length of the parallel sides match the length in the middle of the quilt.”  Squaring up your quilt is so important it needs to be done at each step of construction.  Make your block units, square them up.  Construct your blocks and square those up.  Then square up your rows, too.  If you diligently and consistently do this (yes, I know it’s a pain), you’ll find that once it is time to add on the borders, your quilt center – for the most part – will be perfectly squared up.  You can cut the borders to fit and sew them on without the hassle of easing either the borders or quilt center to fit. Then the borders will work like “book ends” to keep everything square as the quilt lives out its life on your bed, wall, or wherever, even with occasional trips to the washing machine. 

Borders can also echo the quilt’s theme or add some special “oomph” to it.  This isn’t difficult to do.  Does your quilt use a certain block throughout the center?  You could always make smaller version of the block and use it as cornerstones in your border.  Is your quilt an applique quilt which features an animal or flowers or even a figure such as Sunbonnet Sue?  Add those to the border.  You will continue to echo the theme of the quilt out beyond the center, and it will really make the quilt seem complete. 

Then there are those borders which are outstandingly awe inspiring.  These are those borders which are such an integral part of the quilt, you cannot imagine the quilt without them.  Indeed, if you were to remove those borders, the quilt would look half-done.  One of the ways to make such borders is to either have the borders intertwine with the quilt center,

Or have the quilt center expand into the borders.  Either way, it’s hard to imagine the quilt without those borders. 

Scalloped and mitered borders are also pretty impressive.

And then there are those rare times when you find a piece of fabric which does all the work for you.  Once in a blue, quilting moon, you may find material which pulls the entire quilt together in such a way you can’t imagine the quilt without it.

Let me also throw in this Zone of Truth.  If I am putting a lot of time, detail, and effort into a quilt, I tend to think of the borders as a blank canvas.  I can continue that detail into the borders, whether it be applique or quilting or piecing.  They’re mine to create as I would like to, because in the end of construction, the quilt has to please me and make me happy.

The last reason you may want to use borders deals with the size of the quilt.  To be sure, if you need to make a quilt larger, you can always add more blocks.  However, a quicker way to enlarge the quilt is to add borders.   I did this with the “Gone Fishing” quilt I made my husband a couple of Christmases ago.  I purchased a fishing panel and used it for the center of the quilt.  I added blocks, more blocks and floaters.  However, the quilt still wasn’t quite big enough.  Bill wanted the quilt to cover the bed, hang down over the sides, and have a pillow tuck.  Long story short, I had to make a king-size quilt for a queen-size bed.  By the time I got to the point where I had to make the borders, I was suffering from a fishy hangover.  I was well past ready to be done with this quilt.  Some quick measuring of the quilt center and the remaining fabric told me I didn’t have enough fabric to make solid borders, so I simply cut the remaining fabric into rectangles, sewed them together, and created the borders.  It worked wonderfully.  That pieced border pulled all my colors together.  Did I break the Gold Ratio Rule when I made these borders?  Absolutely (and I’ll explain this in a bit).  Did I care about that with this quilt?  No.  This quilt was not show bound.  It was made to Bill’s specifications, and he loves it.  He sleeps under it every night. 

Now let’s talk about the correct way to sew on the borders.  Like most anything, there is a right way and a wrong way to do this.  First, there are those quilters who will simply cut long strips of fabric, sew them to the sides of your quilt, then cut of the excess.  This is the WRONG way to sew on borders.  Trust me.  Yes, this is the easiest way, but it will make your quilt all kinds of wonky and your long arm artist will hate you.  Let me show you why. 

First of all, I made two identical, pieced quilt blocks.  For the purposes of this blog, we’re going to use these blocks as a quilt top.  I measured the block, which for this example is 12-inches unfinished.  I cut four strips, 20-inches long by 2 ½-inches wide.  The length gives me more than enough fabric for all the sides, even after I’ve added the initial two borders. 

I sewed the right and left borders on. trimmed them to fit, and then pressed towards the border.

Then I sewed the top and bottom borders on, trimmed them to fit, and then pressed towards the border.

Now let’s set that little quilt top aside and use the second one to put borders on CORRECTLY.

Step One:  Press the quilt top and then lay the quilt on a flat surface.  Since this is a small quilt, I can use my rotary mat.  When I work with larger quilts, I lay the quilt on the floor (which I have swept beforehand).  It’s important you have a hard surface so you can get an accurate measurement.  Then measure the quilt at the right, middle, and left sides along the vertical length of the quilt top.

Take these three measurements and average them together.  If you have squared up at each step of construction — each block unit, the blocks, and then the rows — these three measurements should be pretty close, if not the same.  However, if these three measurements are over ½-inch in difference from each other, it’s a good idea to take a long, serious look at your quilt.  Your seam allowances are majorly off somewhere and no matter how good you or your long arm artist is at quilting, it will not quilt well. 

In my case, my average length turned out to be 12-inches exactly.  Normally, I put the left and right borders on first. For this, I will cut two 12- inch long fabric strips which are 2 ½-inches wide.  Fold the strips in half to find the middle and lightly finger press the fabric.  You may want to place a pin in the fold so you can better see where the middle is.

Now do the same thing to the quilt top.  In my case, since the quilt top is small, I can fold it in half just like I did the borders and lightly finger press the crease to find the middle.  Of course, with a larger quilt, you would use a measuring tape to find the middle of the quilt top.

Match the middle of the border to the middle of the quilt and pin them together.  Then proceed to pin from the middle out on each side of the border.  Repeat on the opposite side. Sew the first border on and then press the seam towards the border. Repeat for the other side.

Now we need to prep the top and bottom borders.  Since this little quilt top is square, the top and bottom sides were originally also 12-inches square, but the left and right borders have now been sewed on, so it’s wider.  Measure the quilt top again, this time across the quilt to include the borders you just added.  Measure the top, middle, and bottom and average those three numbers together.  In this case, the three measurements are 16-inches.  I will cut two 2 ½-inch wide strips, 16-inches long and use the same method to sew on the top and bottom strips as I did the left and right ones. 

Here is where you will see the big difference between sewing your borders on the correct way and the wrong way:

The quilt which had the borders put on the correct way lies flatter, while the one which had the borders put on incorrectly doesn’t.  The outer edges are kind of wavy and everything is sort of uneven.  This means it will be more difficult to quilt and won’t look good on a bed or a wall. 

This correct method of border construction applies no matter what kind of borders you use on your quilt – applique, pieced, or strips of fabric.

Before we leave the topic of borders, there are few helpful hints I’ve picked up through the years.  In no particular order…

•  What if your quilt has no borders, but you’d like to add them?  Can you do this and how do you know how wide to make them?  Yes.  You can certainly add borders to almost any quilt.  And the trick to making sure they look in correct proportion to your quilt center employs the Golden Ratio.  The math is simple.  Take the size of the finished block and add the width of the sashing (if there is any).  Let’s say we have 12-inch finished quilt blocks in our center, and they are surrounded by 2-inch-wide sashing.  You add 12 + 2, then multiply the Golden Ratio (1.618) and divide by 4 (since there are four sides to the quilt).  So the math looks like this:

12+ 2 = 14

14 x 1.618 = 22 2/3

22 2/3 divided by 4 = 5 2/3, which we will round up to 6 for easy construction.  The widest a border could possible be for this quilt and still look proportional is 6-inches.  This 6-inches can be divided anyway you want to, as long as the total border width is not over 6-inchs.  So you could have two 3-inch borders, three 2-inch borders, a 2-inch and a 4-inch border, etc. 

If wide borders aren’t your thing, you can use this same formula except only multiply by roughly half the Golden Ratio — .618.  This time the math would look like this:

12+ 2 = 14

 14 x .618 = 8 2/3

8 2/3 divided by 4 = 2 1/8, which we will round down to 2 for easy construction.  The narrowest the borders could be and still be in proportion is 2-inches.  But what’s really great about knowing the narrowest and the widest proportions is this:  the border width can fall anywhere between the two numbers.   Technically you could use 3, 4, or 5-inch (or anywhere between those numbers) borders.

•  Make sure all your border fabric is cut on the same grain.  Cut it all width of fabric, length of fabric, or bias.  Don’t mix the grains or your borders will come out wavy.  This means you may need to sew some strips together in order to have borders the length you need (especially with WOF and bias borders).  If this is the case, be sure to join the strips on an angle like this, which is the same process used to make folded binding.

This type of seam helps in a couple of areas.  The first is appearance.  An angled seam is less obvious than a straight seam.  The second is weight.  An angled seams handles the pull of the border weight better than a straight seam – which is especially important with wall hangings.

• Although technically there are no rules about which borders are sewn on first, typically the left and right borders go on first and then the top and bottom ones.

• Because borders are long and they’re a lot to deal with coupled with the entire quilt center, there are some helpful ways to deal with them.  The first is to give yourself lots of room as you’re sewing them on.  Add an additional table to your quilting area, or clear off the surface around your sewing machine to support the bulk and weight of the quilt top and the borders.  This really helps.  Also make sure you pin enough.  You will pin if your add your borders to the top correctly.  Just make sure you have enough pins to keep the border fabric flush with the quilt center.  Sew the borders on with the borders on top of the center.  And quilting gloves make handling all the weight and bulk easier.  You just can grip it better with the gloves.

• Applique borders are a bit of a different beast.  The best way I have found to handle these beautiful borders is to cut the borders out several inches larger than needed.  Find the center of the border, lay out your applique pieces, and sew them on.  Then re-measure the border and cut it down to the size needed.  Applique tends to take up the fabric a bit.  If you cut it to fit before you applique, you may find the border too short when you sew it on.

• If you plan to finish your quilt with binding and no border, you may want to consider an “anchor border” (my term since it’s something you anchor the binding to), especially if your blocks are heavily pieced and/or there’s some bias on the outside edges.  This is a narrow border – no wider than 2-inches – in the same color as the background of the quilt, and seems to seamlessly blend into the center.  This gives you something with a bit more stability than a pieced block or bias edge to sew your binding to.  If you sew binding to a pieced or bias edge, there’s a greater chance the quilt center will stretch and become “unsquared.”  And personally I like my anchor border cut on the length of the fabric grain – it’s the least stretchy of the grains and stabilizes everything really well.

• If you have put a lot of time and effort into your quilt and at the end of the journey, you’re just ready to sew on some fabric strips and call it a day – don’t.  It’s easy to simply want to just finish the top, get it quilted and bound, and call it done.  If you’ve given the quilt lots of your time and attention to detail, it would be a shame to slack it on the borders.  Give yourself a day or two to think through a border plan.  If at that point, you’re still ready to cut out some plain strips of fabric and sew those on (correctly, of course), then go for it.  But chances are, you’ll decide to throw a bit more time and attention to those borders, too.

I hope this blog has shown you why it’s important to construct borders the correct way.  After all the time spent on the quilt center, the borders should serve to show off all that hard work, not detract from it. 

Tips From My Studio

Although I typically add my borders by sewing with them on top of the quilt center, this is not always the case.  I must weigh a few considerations.  If the sides of my quilt are not heavily pieced or appliqued, I can sew with the borders on top.  However, if the sides of the quilt are pieced or have applique placed close to the edges, I don’t want to “chop” any points or applique pieces off by accidentally catching them in the seam. Then I will sew with the quilt center on top.  This way I can make sure nothing is caught in a seam, dodging troubled areas if necessary.

Strip sets are one of my favorite quilting techniques.  They’re fast, accurate, and pretty much mindless sewing.  Find something to binge watch and get to it.  Next thing you know you can have tons of nine-patches, four-patches, or postage stamp blocks ready to go.  However, like all quilting techniques, there are a couple of extra steps you can do to make sure they look wonderful.  First, I handle these things almost the same way I do bias.  I starch the strips first, although not quite as heavily as I do bias pieces.  Second, if like the quilt tops in this blog, there’s a lot of strips involved, I don’t sew strip after strip onto the set.  I generally sew two or three strips together and then join those with another set.  This eliminates the constant handling of bulky fabric (you only handle joining the strip sets once or twice).  I’ve found it’s also easier to press the seams if you’re only dealing with a couple of joined strips.  However, this is a personal preference. 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with joining all the strips together, just be sure you flip the strip set as you go, so you’re sewing in opposite directions each time.  If you sew in the same direction, you may get “strip creep” – the strips of fabric shift and your strip set will look wonky. 

In case you don’t know, this pattern is called Rail Fence.  It’s a great way to use up your scraps and it’s super easy to make.  Cut your strips the desired length, sew them together, cut them into squares, and sew the squares together, rotating them so one set is horizontal and the other vertical.  This is one of my favorite patterns to use for charity quilts.

I don’t advise sewing really long strips of fabric together – nothing more than a WOF, which is generally between 42- and 44-inches.  I have issues with the seams twisting a bit if the strips are much longer than this.

At this point, you maybe asking, “Why does she use so much purple in her examples?”  Well, if you’ve guessed this may be my favorite color, you’re right.  Nonetheless, I typically don’t use a great deal of purple in my pieced quilts.  But anytime any of my quilting buddies have a surplus of purple fabric, it finds a home in my studio…and I have to use it up somehow….

From My Studio to Yours,

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Felix