borders

[yolanda]

Help!

I want to learn how to do broaders on a quilt top. All I have being doing is pantos and mendering.

my question is, how do you put on a border design on the quilt top? do you mark the quilt as you go, or do you mark a design frist and then load the quilt on the machine?

I what to learn how to add a panto design border on the quilt and do a differernt design in the center of the quilt, but I don't know where to start.

i keep thinking that I would have to do the top and bottom of the quilt and then rotate it 90%.

Would this be the right way or not?

Boy do I have alot to learn. I am still very new at this.

Help!!

[bstucker]

I'm no expert, but the first thing I like to do before starting on a border is to stitch in the ditch between it and the body of the quilt. It helps to both stabablize the border and separate it from the body of the quilt giving it a nice clean edge. If you use a panto for the border, you have to choose whether to dead end it, or turn the corner. Some pantos come with corners. I usually set my corners first using a 45 degree angle through the corner to line up the corner, then I place the border panto in between and see where I'm going to have to connect the two. Sometimes you have to redraw some lines to make the two blend together. Once that is done, I do the top border, and then the body of the quilt, and then the bottom border. If the border is directional you will have to flip it over to make it look the same on the bottom, and the corners will be reversed from the top ones. This probably sounds confusing, and maybe someone else can simplifiy this better than I can. Try laying your quilt out and playing with the placement before you load the quilt, then you can see how the pattern should lay on each side. You will have to turn the quilt to do the sides once you have finished the body of the quilt. If I'm going to use a stencil or other design that needs to be marked, I do that before loading the quilt. At least that way you can see how it will look before you commit thread and time to it. Hope this helps a little.

[yolanda]

Thank You ! I will have to try this on one of my own quilt, But frist I will practice .

Now when I do the top and buttom I take off the quilt and rotated 90% to do the two other borader right?

Thank you! again. now I have somthing to work on.

Originally posted by bstucker

I'm no expert, but the first thing I like to do before starting on a border is to stitch in the ditch between it and the body of the quilt. It helps to both stabablize the border and separate it from the body of the quilt giving it a nice clean edge. If you use a panto for the border, you have to choose whether to dead end it, or turn the corner. Some pantos come with corners. I usually set my corners first using a 45 degree angle through the corner to line up the corner, then I place the border panto in between and see where I'm going to have to connect the two. Sometimes you have to redraw some lines to make the two blend together. Once that is done, I do the top border, and then the body of the quilt, and then the bottom border. If the border is directional you will have to flip it over to make it look the same on the bottom, and the corners will be reversed from the top ones. This probably sounds confusing, and maybe someone else can simplifiy this better than I can. Try laying your quilt out and playing with the placement before you load the quilt, then you can see how the pattern should lay on each side. You will have to turn the quilt to do the sides once you have finished the body of the quilt. If I'm going to use a stencil or other design that needs to be marked, I do that before loading the quilt. At least that way you can see how it will look before you commit thread and time to it. Hope this helps a little.

[LindaN]

Sounds like its time for you to start reading books and/or take some classes. Lots of teachers also have DVDs. If you pick up a pattern pack (like Keryn Emmerson or Marsha Stevens) there will be directions written on "how" to do borders. But its not quite like watching someone else do them! There might be some "quilt math" involved; Linda Mae Diny covers this in her book. Learning "quilt math" helps you plop the border in the proper spot the first time.

What I do is SID the top borders and baste down the sides. Then I quilt the body of the quilt, and go back and do the top and bottom border. When I'm done there, I take off the quilt and turn it (might take 15 minutes for a queen) and do the "new" top and bottom borders--which were the sides. I remove the basting after I'm done with the SID. There are folks who don't turn their quilts to do borders, but for me getting four straight passes on the quilt (by turning) is easier than all those starts and stops. {I tie off and bury all of my knots and thread tails; I am certain that my quilting will not come un-stitched}.

If you're rolling too tight you might have a tuck in your backing. Its one of those things you're going to have to actually do in order to learn.

[Gloria Byers]

Do you baste the entire quilt border lines,do the borders and then start the quilting in the body of the quilt, or just baste the borders as you go?

[Sams Mom]

I quilt the top and bottom borders and then I take the quilt off and chalk or mark the sides on Golden Threads paper and then reload it without turning it. I've tried turning the quilt but this works better for me.

[LindaN]

I quilt everything in front of me as I look at it, and baste the borders with long stitches if I'm turning the quilt. A stabilized quilt is less prone to puckers. If you're putting a lot of quilting into the body of the quilt and leaving the borders for last--unstabilized--you might end up with a flared border . Basting is very important. The long stitches pull out quickly later. Some folks also pin baste. But I prefer thread as it doesn't catch on anything, bend, or scratch if I forget it. I try not to use any marking tool other than chalk as I do not want to be responsible for soaking blue or purple marker out of a client quilt.

I like to turn as I can get the border in one pass, and it doesn't need to be pinned as much.

Works for me.

[Evelyn Dobbins]

Linda N,

I wish I'd read your info a couple weeks ago. I had to turn a quilt to do the side borders. The borders were 15 inches wide on the sides and when I finished and took it off, I had some puckering in the backing. It was for my sister and she insisted it was okay. It didn't show too much mainly because of the print color on the backing.

I will always baste from now on. I think it will make it easier to pin back on, also. Do you use just one long line or sew back and forth with the baste stitch?

Thanks, Evelyn