The Violet QAL Week 4 - Adding the Borders

One quick correction for the border - the pattern says that for the lap size you will need (2) 53.5" strips for the shorter sides - you actually need (2) 54.5" strips. So sorry about that!

Now that your quilt top is mostly finished, it is time to add the borders. It's ok to not enjoy this part, I don't really like it either. You can choose to leave them off if you wish, but I think they add to the design of the quilt and that they are worth the effort. 

I have only made this pattern without the borders once (pictured above). My backing fabric was just a little bit too small and I decided to just skip the borders and I regretted it.

The borders are pretty simple, so I will keep this post brief. In the pattern I mention that you can oversize your borders a little bit and then trim them. Don't call the quilt police, but this is how I always do it. If you ask any long arm quilter though, they are going to say this is a big no no because it is very easy to distort the borders and end up with a wonky quilt.

The photo below shows my rainbow quilt top with top and bottom borders attached - I used a ruler and lined it up with the edge of the quilt to square up the ends of the border. I still haven't added the borders to the sides so I guess that is on my to do list for this week!

If you are going to walk on the wild side like me, make sure to thoroughly pin the border to the quilt top without any stretching before you piece - this will help a lot. Once you have sewn each border strip to the quilt top, press the seam and then trim off the excess.

If you are feeling more like a rule follower, or if you are a newer quilter, the exact sizes for the borders are listed in the pattern and this will help prevent that problem. 

I am going to start sharing finished quilt tops in my Instagram stories - there have been so many beautiful ones! Next week we will discuss basting, quilting, trimming and squaring up the quilt, and binding.