Quilt borders

[Eljay]

Any tips for getting quilt borders on straight and even?

I just did a quilt top with 3 borders. Love the look! But when I laid it flat on the floor, the borders weren't flat. Somehow, there's too much fabric. It looks like I should make a couple of darts on the side, but of course that's not the solution.

I noticed when I sewed them on that the loose edge seemed bigger than the sewn edge. I was very careful to keep everything straight and square.

I'm going to take them off and try again. Sigh...

Any suggestions? TIA :)

[Caryl]

I know this reply is very late, Linda, but I e-mailed my mom about this, and she sent back this reply:

"Funny you should ask -- I'm putting off finishing my northwoods quilt,
having the same problem. When I showed it to Clarice -- she said I was
being too fussy (and she is a GREAT quilter!) Only thing I can think of
is -- perhaps when piecing the border -- you should use diagonal seams -- it
may allow them to lay more flat and not stretch while sewing them to the
quilt top. Another tip which may or may not be the problem -- never use
steam when ironing. This will stretch the fabric."

Hope this helps! :)

[Eljay]

Thank you! I've never heard about the steam iron, but that makes sense. I use one but I can turn off the steam. Now that I think of it, I'm sure I've seen people use diagonal seams in quilt borders. I only had 2 seams in these borders (only because I wasn't paying attention :o ) but I'm going to remember that for future projects!

I spoke with a friend about this last week. She and a few friends recently worked on a King-size quilt and had the same problem. They (me too) just took long border strips, sewed them on then trimmed off the excess. (It's worked for me before :confused: ) What they ended up doing is taking off the borders, then measuring each side exactly and trimming the borders to those measurements before sewing them on. Then they began pinning from the centre outward. I forgot to ask if they also sewed from the centre outward.

I remember reading once that this is the best way to do it, but since the other way worked for me before, I just dismissed it as personal preference.

I've started to carefully remove the borders. I figured it was a good movie-watching project. There are 12 pieces and I got 5 off during one movie! :eek: I need to watch another movie this weekend! :D