
Fun Quilt Border Ideas
Heather ThomasDescription
I've always been of the opinion that borders on quilts are a lot more interesting if they're pieced. However, I really don't like having to do the math to come up with what exact sizes I need my borders to be. So I'm constantly going to this wonderful funky pieced border that I like to do. And I usually foundation piece it and use a flip and sew method. So you can see here that it's just a striped border, and there are some fun, different angles on it.
Now this one has mostly thin stripes and not a whole lot of tight angles, but you can do it so it does have more interest in it too, so it's less repetitive. So on this border here, you can see that I've got lots of big angles, and I've got some pieces that are pre-sewn together. In fact, these were leftovers from the body of the quilt, and put little corners in, whatever you want to do. And, sometimes you can add interesting quilting too. In this one I simply used a zigzag instead of a straight stitch, so it was just a lot more fun, not so serious of a border.
So let me show you how easy this is to do. You need to start, or I like to start, you could do it without a foundation if you want it to, but I like to use a foundation. So, I rip my foundation generally speaking, so you can cut it too. The width that I want my border to be, so that's the the width I'm going to use it when I sew it on. And then I cut or rip a whole bunch of strips that I'm going to use, and I want them to be wider than the foundation piece because I want to be able to turn them at different angles.
This couldn't be any easier. It's just a flip and sew technique. The very first fabric that you lay down, you lay down right side up, and then the next fabric that you lay down, you lay it down right side down and at whatever little angle you want. And you're going to be using the raw edge of the top fabric as your edge guide to get a quarter inch seam or whatever type of seam you want. You really don't have to be all that perfect because it's your own little, own little border, and you're going to be trimming it to size.
So I'm just going to sew the seam. Now, a lot of things are entirely up to you. If you're going to hand quilt this quilt, I would definitely trim my seam allowances. And if I was using some really thin or light colored fabrics, I would trim that extra fabric away too, but otherwise you really don't have to. Unfortunately, I've got some yellow in here, so I might as well trim it all because it might show through that yellow.
So now I'm just going to flip it over, finger press it, and take my next piece of fabric. So I'll use this piece of fabric here, and I'm going to put it at a different angle and sew it on, again using that top fabric as my seam guide edge. And I'm going to trim again. You could keep a small rotary cutter next to you if you wanted to, and use your rotary cutter. Every time I do that, I end up cutting my base fabric, so I kind of stopped and just use the scissors.
And after I've put on about five or six pieces, I will go to the iron and give it a nice iron. And that is about it. I'm going to finger press this one. And now I've got this wonderful, multicolored, energetic, fun border. When I'm done piecing the whole thing, I'll come back in and trim everything equal with my foundation piece.
So it's really easy to know exactly where to trim. And you don't have to use this only as a border. You could actually use this in blocks. You could cut it into narrow strips and piece other fabrics in between it and make blocks out of it. You can do all sorts of things with it.
It's just a basic, fun, easy, kind of crazy, quilting way of adding some funkiness to the edge of your quilt or to make a quilt out of. You should try it. It's a lot of fun.
Do you do a mitered corner with this border or a medalian corner piece?