Let’s add a skinny border

A few weeks ago I was working on a quick gift and felt that it needed a skinny border to finish out the design and was thinking about making it 1/4-inch in width.

My first thought was to cut a strip that was 3/4-inch but decided that there was too much possibility for the border to be crooked or to vary in width as it went.

What I am trying to say here is that I wouldn’t be able to sew it straight!!!

Instead, I cut the fabric strip at 1-1/4 inches and sewed it onto the two sides…..

After pressing it well, I brought in a square-up ruler and trimmed the new border to 1/2 inch…..

Next, I headed to the machine and sewed the outer border on, using my VERY BEST 1/4-inch seam allowance…..

And….voila….. the skinny border was incorporated into the top…..

I have already shared the finished version of this quilted gift…..

….and you can read about the fabric painting technique in THIS POST.

How do you ensure a tiny border??

Tricks for measuring and adding borders!!

Several weeks ago I shared about this small quilt top for charity…..

As I was applying the borders, I started thinking about the various methods that quilters use to measure and apply their borders and thought that I would share my EASY way.

I love this method because there is NO measuring needed!!

I hope that you enjoy this video that shows my process….

I hope that this helps you the next time you have borders to apply!!

Border Mania

Yesterday my husband, Michael, left for a week in Scotland. Since I have worked hard to get the majority of my accounting work done and all of my Christmas presents purchased and mostly wrapped, I have given myself the gift of a week of quilting.

And the project is……Flower Pots!!……

As I posted several months ago, I had trouble deciding how to set the blocks together and, through trial and error, ended up with a series of borders in each block. First a 1/2 inch light green fabric that started out as the “pot” fabric but then changed to another fabric once I ran out.

Next came a 1 inch border in a dark fabric that offset the colors of the block.

Then the accent orange border which is 3/4 inch.

As I planned the large flower border, I ended up adding another set of borders prior to the flower border and had planned to put another set on the outside. That is where this tale continues.

As I started picking fabrics for the next 1 inch border, I really wanted the same fabric that had been used in the other 2 large framing borders, but unfortunately there was just barely enough fabric. I even pieced them together with a straight seam rather than a bias seam because I was afraid that I would run out……

And then as I measured, I was still a few inches short. SO, I dug thru my scrap basket and found this wonderful 13 inch piece…..

HOORAY, we were saved!!!

OK, that border was added and then the last 1/2 inch orange border (which, by the way, I only have about 6 inches of orange fabric left)……

Now came the fun task of figuring out what to do with the final border. I tried a light green……

….uh……NO!!!

Then a darker blue……

…..Still not right.

How about white…… _C176969

…..DEFINITELY NOT!!

How about the green that is already in the inner borders…..

Better…..but not quite there….

And then it hit me……I HAD to finish the pattern by encasing the orange strip in two dark border strips……

Yes it looks great, but that means that I have TWO more sets of borders to add!!!

Back to the studio I go!!! Now, don’t get the idea that I am really upset….I am so happy about getting to sew that I don’t mind HOW many borders I have to add.