As a professional Longarm quilter I have the privilege of seeing many lovely quilts. There is, however, a problem that can occur when borders are not correctly added to a quilt top. Many times a strip of fabric is laid on the quilt top, sewn from one end to the other and then cut off. Unfortunately, this results in wavy borders and dog eared corners. No amount of awesome quilting can change the look of an out of square quilt.
Regardless of the precision taken during the piecing process, because of the nature of fabric, the cut edges and sometimes bias edges, a quilt top will not be perfectly square. As a result, by adding borders correctly, you can square up the quilt top so that when quilted it will look much better, lay flatter, or if a wall quilt, hang straight on the wall.
The correct method for adding borders starts with measuring the quilt top in three places, just in from the top and bottom and across the middle. Two strips are cut the same length for the opposite borders using the middle measurement easing in the fullness, if any. The same steps are repeated for the other two sides. Although this method takes a few minutes longer, you will be more satisfied with how your quilt looks when completed. The video below walks you through the steps to correctly add borders to any quilt top.
If there was any fullness that was “eased” in by distributing the fullness and pinning as illustrated in the video, always place the eased or fuller side down (next to the feed dogs) when stitching. The feed dogs will evenly pull the fullness through. If you try to stitch with the fullness on the top, the presser foot will push the fullness along and make little pleats. Always stitch with the fullest side down.
If you have never added borders using this method, I encourage you to try it. You will be love the results.