Here's what I did:
1. I decided where I wanted my borders to sit on my quilts. Often there's two opposite easy edges with straight lines, and the other two edges are a bit trickier. I'll deal with the easy sides first.
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| the side of this quilt are straight, but the top and bottom aren't |
2. I removed the paper pieces from the edge pieces and pressed the seam allowances out so they sat flat.
3. I laid the 1/4" mark on the ruler on the exact point where I wanted the border to meet the centre of the quilt. I then trimmed with the rotary cutter so I had a 1/4" seam allowance to sew with. I had pieced with 3/8" seam allowance so there was a bit to trim off.
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| note that the 1/4" line is on the point where the paper pieces meet - see 9 3/4" on the ruler. |
4. I cut my border strips in the usual manner (measure across the centre of the quilt and cut to that length), pinned carefully, and sewed on the machine with the 1/4" foot.
5. I pressed the seam towards the border and admired the beautiful points!
6. Now for the top and bottom of this quilt. Once again I had to decide where I wanted the border to sit. I laid the 1/4" mark on the ruler where I wanted the border to meet the centre. I had to cut off more on the top and bottom, just because of the way this design is. Think of it like a brick wall. The top and bottom may be complete rows, but there will always be half bricks to on the sides.
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| see the 9" mark is sitting right on a point. |
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| again - nice tidy points at the top |
7. Different designs will need to be treated differently. Here's how I trimmed my Tumbling Colors quilt. I knew I was going to trim the top row, so only pieced half diamonds to avoid wastage.
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| I retained the points down the right hand side |
8. The back of the quilt is still very messy, but that's what happens with English Paper Piecing (EPP). I did use my applique scissors to very carefully trim some of the excess points, but then I just turned it over and pressed it flat from the front. I really don't worry about the seams sitting flat on EPP.
I hope you find that useful. I'm currently hand quilting both of these quilts with bright threads and big stitch hand quilting. I'll show you once they are finished.
3 comments:
Very clear - thanks for that Wendy!
Well explained, Wendy. This is exactly what I would do but I'm sure it doesn't feel intuitive to everyone and having an expert explain it is worth every word.
Love your work; you are an inspiration to many of us! Marsha from QuilterinMotion
That's what I would do too, but I doubt I could explain it as clearly and succinctly. :)
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