How To Choose Perfect Quilt Borders
Sure-Fire Tips to Get it Right Every Time!
Once you’ve got a quilt top pieced it can be daunting to choose borders for it. You’ve worked so hard on the top, and you want the borders to be perfect. How do you choose?
Think of a border as the frame around your pieced painting. It will stop the action of the overall pattern and can direct your eye to the most important parts. Plus, one or more borders can give your eye a place to pause before heading back into the active body of the quilt.
In some cases, a border will be a continuation of the pieced center. In that case you may want a thin border, or sashing, between the two to give your eye a resting place, as well as to accent a particular color used in the piecing.
We often see beautifully pieced tops with borders that just don’t work. Usually it’s because the border fabric is too weak or too strong for the rest of the quilt.
For example, the border on the following quilt is too busy and not strong enough in value and color to complement the quilt top. A less contrasty fabric in a deeper color would complement the quilt nicely.
“Spring Celebration” quilt. Get the free pattern here.
Audrey and Diane at The Cloth Parcel have written an excellent article about choosing quilt borders. We especially like their tip about auditioning border fabric, but there are other good points as well.
When Mom and a great Aunt passed in the 80’s and 90’s I was given quilts, quilt tops, and quilt pieces. Now that I am in my 60’s and no longer working it is time for me to complete some of these before giving to my daughter. Oh, we are going to work on them together!