Are you happy with your quilts after you add your borders? Do the borders wave or hump in places when they should all lie flat? And adding the weight of the batting and backing doesn’t flatten them either?
Here’s what you can do to avoid that problem. The reason why the borders are not flat is because the length of the border added is longer then the quilt top. If you piece your border length and then sew it to the quilt it is easy to ease in too much fabric.
So this is what you do:
1. mesure your quilt top
2. trim your border to that length
3. pin the border to the quilt side, matching the ends and sew the two together
Here’s a tip to easily measure the quilt sides: fold the quilt top in half and match the ends together. With your measuring tape, measure from the quilt edge to the center fold. Then you fold your pieced border in half. Trim the border to the length you just got from the folded quilt top. Open the quilt top. Now you are ready to pin the quilt top and border right sides together and add your borders with confidence.
Here’s another tip about measuring your quilts: measure along a seam that runs from the edge to the center fold. That way you can be confident that you are not stretching the quilt and making your number bigger then it really is.
So try it! Let us know if it has made a difference in your quilt making! This is what the professionals do to get square and flat quilts. And your machine quilter will absolutely LOVE you! She will have no problem fitting your quilt on her frame.
