Every once in a while there is one of those Ah-ha! moments that stay with you forever. Remember Simply Quilts on HGTV with Alex Anderson? OMG, I loved that show! It was on during my most formative quilting years, and I hung on every word that each wonderful guest had to say.
Anyway, there was one episode where the guest was talking about making sure your borders fit your quilt. I knew to measure through the middle of the quilt and at two points near the sides, average those numbers to get the length to cut the borders. I still do this on large quilts.
I learned the hard way that just slapping borders on and sewing them would give me a lot of wonky, not square quilts.
This genius person was cutting borders for a smaller quilt, one that was about 40″ square. She smoothed the top out on the table, laid the cut border strips across the middle following a seam line. She then cut the borders in line with the top of the quilt. Holy Moley! No measuring tape! This was life-changing!
What was your AH-HA quilting moment?
Align strip with a seam line in the middle of the quilt top. Trim even with quilt top using a ruler and rotary cutter. |
Sew the first two borders to the quilt top, press and repeat for remaining borders. |
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