Love Your Longarmer - Piecing Techniques

Longarmers have a love-hate relationship with borders.. if done properly they help square your quilt, if not they make your quilt very difficult to complete. 

Borders are the last thing to add to your flimsy! I know how exciting that can be - the quilt is almost done and you just have the borders to complete. So, you cut a big long strip and sew away trimming the ends… ouch… now instead of borders you have a ribbon for an edge!

Longarmers love a nice flat quilt top that lays well on the frame! How do you achieve this? There are several techniques that work well, we will cover one way to complete borders today.

Regardless of what your pattern says to cut the border it is important to measure your actual quilt top before adding borders.

Your top may not be the exact size that the pattern says it will be prior to adding the borders. The quilt size can be affected by how you cut your fabric, what thread you are using and how accurate your seams are to 1/4 inch. So regardless of what length your patten says your borders should be; measure and be sure!

Cutting your border to the average length or width will give you a better chance of having a nice flat border.

Cutting tip: Be sure to adjust your fabric every few cuts, straighten it up and take another first cut so you don’t end up with a curve when it has been opened WOF.