yay! for all the new quilters out there, creating new tops and sewing up a storm! I’ve been noticing, though, that not many quilting patterns give specific instructions for cutting and attaching borders, and this could lead to trouble for new sewists.

Measuring correctly is crucial to getting borders that lay flat for quilting and will help keep your quilt squared up.

How To Do It (or) Measure, measure.
Measure your quilt across it’s middle, top to bottom. Use this measurement to cut the length of your side borders. Before attaching the border, mark both the border and the quilt at the centers and then midway between the center and each end. Match these points when you pin and then sew the border and quilt top together.

Once you have the side borders on, repeat this method, measuring your quilt top  across it’s middle, from one side to the other.

That’s it! Simple, right? If you’re a skeptic (I was, btw), try this. (1) Measure your quilt across the middle, top to bottom and side to side. (2) Sew your borders on without measuring them. Then re-measure your quilt across the top border and across the side border, subtract the width of the border and see how close that measurement is to what you got in step (1). I’ve heard stories of as much as 6 inches difference(!)