I thought I would post a little something about attaching borders.

We all know how to measure both ways through the center of the top to get the correct size. Cut the border to size. Find the centers..pin and stitch with out stretching keeping every thing nice and square. RIGHT??


BUT sometimes we are in a hurry or whatever!!! and just don't take the time for all that measuring and pinning. RIGHT? I know I do. In fact I did just that on this quilt just to show what almost always happens.



This is kind of a odd photo but I will try to explain. This is the top with the two side borders already attached, All laid out flat. With the top and bottom border nicely laid on top...all smoothed out. OK So you can do this and then trim the border off even with the top. Does that make sense? I hope so. LOL Now let me show you what will almost always happen when you do this. ( you may need to enlarge the photo to see )

This is with the border attached. It looks fine until you put a ruler on it. See what I mean, the ruler is lined up straight with the border except for the top border that I trimmed.

I attached both the top and bottom borders in this manner.

This is what I needed to trim off after stitching and pressing. See how much they were really off.

No matter how careful I am...No matter how I trim...I still have to square off the final corners.

Look at how much I was off.. Just think how wonky the corners would be if I had not trimmed this off? This is just one border..What if I had several borders with this little extra bit of fabric?

OH MY ! LOL

The finished corners look OK. They LOOK square, BUT if you put a ruler on it it is not. Not quite. Now don't get me wrong it is OK. Once it is quilted and bound I doubt any one will notice.

I am sure that no one but me will ever put a ruler on this quilt to see if it is perfectly square.

All I am saying is... We should think about how we choose to measure and attach the borders on our quilts. I know how to do it properly.

Yet sometimes I choose to take a short cut.. I know that when I take that short cut it will not be perfect in fact might not even be quite square. I know that sometimes finished is better than perfect... The quilt police will not come and drag us off to quilt jail.

Just think about it, find what works for you and have a bit of fun.

This quick method is not right for every quilt, sometimes is is better to take the time to measure, trim and pin, spend a bit of extra time.

I decided that this quick method was perfect for this quick quilt.