BLOG - Wave Goodbye to Wavy Borders!

Hellooooo there, quilty friends! 😊

Today, I want to talk about something that can give longarmers nightmares... It's BORDERS! Oooh boy, get them wrong, and you're in for a world of hurt. All that excess fabric...what to do with it, am I right? Don't worry, though, I'm here to help.

So, why do borders sometimes behave so badly? Well, there are a few reasons that could be causing you drama. Firstly, if your border strips are not cut accurately, it can result in wavy borders. I know it can be tempting to just 'eyeball it', but PLEASE take the time to measure and cut those strips accurately. Use the method described below if you need some guidance.

Another cause of border woes is if you stretch or pull the fabric while sewing. Be gentle with that precious material, people! Tugging and stretching it can cause the borders to become distorted... we don't want that!

Sometimes you'll need to ease in the fabric slightly when attaching longer border strips to shorter quilt top edges, or vice versa. When this happens, you want to make sure you're distributing the excess fabric evenly along the border strip as you're sewing. If you don't do this correctly, you guessed it, you'll end up with wavy borders.

Inadequate pinning while attaching the borders can be another problem. If you don't pin the border strip to the quilt top at regular intervals, the fabric may shift or move during sewing, resulting in wavy borders. No thank you!

Lastly, you may have some quilt top distortion going on. Don't worry if it's not quite square, it happens to the best of us, but it can affect how the borders lay. Just measure the quilt top diagonally from corner to corner to check if it is square, and make adjustments as needed to ensure the borders lie flat.

Now, let me walk you through how to properly measure your border. Firstly, measure the distance through the center of your quilt. Next, measure close to one side of the quilt (not along the very edge as this will likely have stretched a little), then measure close to the other side of your quilt. Okay, okay, got it so far? Let's work through an example:

Centre: 80"

Side 1: 81.5"

Side 2: 78.5"

Now, add those three numbers together and take an average. In this case, 3 totalled 240, so we divide that by 3 to get an average of 80. Ta-da! That means you'll want to cut the border length to 80". Once you've done that, fold the border and your quilt in half, then line up those two fold lines and pin. Easy peasy! Just remember to continue pinning all the while easing your border fabric to fit your quilt.

I hope this little tutorial has been helpful for you. Do you have any other specific how-tos you want me to cover? Send me a message and let me know. Until next time, happy quilting! 😍

Lyndelle xx