Friday, April 30, 2010

1st Quilt Ever -- Borders

Let's put the borders on our quilt so we can call the top Officially DONE!


Start by laying your 3/8-yard cut of border fabric on your cutting mat with the fold lined up on one of the lines. Trim the top edge so it's straight, then cut five 2 1/2" strips. Remove selvages.


Sew your strips together to create one long strip, using a 1/4" seam allowance, then press seams open. (You want them open so your borders will lay as flat as possible.)


First you will sew borders on the two long sides. Overlap your border strip at the top edge about 1/2", and align the edges.


Sew with a 1/4" seam allowance, lining up the edges as you go.


You will have better success with this step if you smooth the quilt top out to the side as much as possible. This will help defeat gravity a little bit, creating less drag on your borders.


Once you reach the end, trim your long border strip about 1/2" past the edge, as shown. Repeat to attach your border strip to the other long side of your quilt top.


Lay your quilt top right side up on your ironing board. Press your seam to set the stitches.


Press your seam allowances toward the border. Repeat for the other long side's border.

Trim the excess in line with the edge of your quilt.

Repeat all steps for top and bottom borders.


Borders are on! Your quilt top is officially DONE!!

Tomorrow I will post about adding the pieced strip to the back. Then on Monday we'll start talking about QUILTING!!

10 comments:

Megan said...

I was already working on making my first quilt ever when you started this series! I've got a border to add before my top is officially done too. I'm looking forward to your posts about the back and quilting! Thanks for doing this series!

Lynette @ My Craft Discovery said...

I sure have a lot to do to catch up! Silly finals! We'll see if my motivation level peaks today, and I'll start putting squares together.

Melissa said...

Care, I didn't think I was going to do this with you. After-all it isn't my first quilt ever. But I could no longer resist the temptation so I caught up in the last 3 days. Now I'm anxiously waiting the next step. It's so exciting. This will be my first quilt ever with borders and my first quilt ever that I quilted. Thanks for doing this series. It's really fun and my daughter will finally have a quilt for her crib.

Anonymous said...

Looking good, great tutorial I can't wait to see everyone's progress!

molleemac said...

Thank you so much for walking us through this. I've been just following along visually, not yet ready to start. But now that we are borders, I'm so excited I think I'll start my first quit this weekend. You have given my confidence! Can hardly wait for next week's steps.

mly

rhinsey said...

Your quilt looks amazing! I love the colors you chose! It looks better and better the more we do. :D

Garilyn S said...

My top is done. I did the smaller one with just the fat quarters, so I'm awaiting the backing and binding!

Stephanie said...

Ok, I'm not making a quilt along with your posts, but you are just F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!!! I will use this as a reference for sure!!

Manda said...

Done with first quilt top. I'm going to get the 2nd done before I start on binding and backing. This is so much fun! What's next?

AddieNCE said...

Thanks to your tutorial, I started quilting :) My first quilttop is done now, but I still fear to actually quilt it. If you'd like to see what I did (I skipped the disappearing nine-patch for this time), you can click here: http://stashofpixels.blogspot.com/2011/10/excuses-galore.html