Border help!

[Shirley M.]

Okay, I have a bit of a mystery that I cannot figure out. I put the star borders on the two sides and the bottom. Everything fit just fine, the star blocks lined up at the corners, etc. When I went to put the top border on, however, the corners of the star blocks on the top border that are supposed to line up with the corners of the star blocks on the side borders are 1/4" to the right of where they're supposed to be - and thus don't line up. The border itself fits exactly, but the blocks are somehow shifted over ??? If I lay out the border with those star block corners lining up, then I have 1/4" extra at one end and am 1/4" short at the other. I could add a little at the short end to make up the difference, but then I lose the seam allowance at the other end. As I said, I cannot figure out what I did. The rest all went together so well! Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Betty J.]

Shawn, Haven't a clue, especially without seeing it, but it sounds intriguing. It's what makes quilting so INTERESTING--these odd little mysteries. I would guess it has something to do with the seam allowances not being quite right for starters and a right-left, up-down difference. Hope you succeed in solving it. Cheers, Betty Jo

[Sharon E.]

I also had the same problem and decided my quilt will not be accurate and still sewed the borders on without the stars lining up at the corners. Only one corner gave me trouble. I'm not sure what the problem was or is, but decided it wasn't worth worrying about.

Good luck, Sharon in warm Colorado

[Sharon E.]

Hi Shawn: I had the same problem as you also, and like you am still baffled in what went wrong, because everything else went togetherjust fine, it worked well on 2 sides for me then the other two it did not, I used the TQS fabric that Sue used and the fabric is so busy and blends together nicely that I really don't think it'll be noticeable once it's all put together and quilted, unless someone looks very careful, so I have decided not to be too critical on myself and let it go, Heidi

[Sharon E.]

I have a similar problem,and went with it like Heidi did.
I have now sewn on the star borders and did the finishing up pressing. Noticed that the quilt wasn't quite 'right' in two corners, so I laid it out on the floor to measure. North/south it measures up the same in 3 places. East/west centre measures the same as the other side, but the outside measurements are short.
Should I take advantage of the bias edges and see if I can get it closer?

Jean in Windsor, ON

[Sharon E.]

Hi Shawn...I matched my corners first, then divided the quilt edge in half and you can distribute or ease the extra main body of the quilt. You should put the main body next to the feed dogs and it should take care of the extra fullnes on the main body of the quilt. I hope I have made this understandable for you. Or you can go back and check the seam allowance for the blocks as previously suggested. Nan in cold upstate New York

[Sharon E.]

Yep, I was going to say what Nan said.

[Sharon E.]

Thanks Nan, of course what you wrote makes perfect sense now, just wish I'd thought of it myself first. I'll certainly remember this for the next time I'll run into this problem. Heidi

[Sharon E.]

I also found it helpful to use the even feed (quilting) foot when adding the border. Dot :idea:

[Sharon E.]

Hi Shawn...I matched my corners first, then divided the quilt edge in half and you can distribute or ease the extra main body of the quilt. You should put the main body next to the feed dogs and it should take care of the extra fullnes on the main body of the quilt. I hope I have made this understandable for you. Or you can go back and check the seam allowance for the blocks as previously suggested. Nan in cold upstate New York

This might work, but the only place there'd be fullness would be from the corner of the star block to the outside edge. On one side the border would be 1/4 inch too short so I could ease in the extra on the main body, but on the other end the border would end up 1/4 too long so the easing would have to happen on the border. Still might be able to manage it. I have a Pfaff with the built in walking foot so that helps ease the top side when you're sewing, too.

[Kathryn S.]

Shawn, have you measured the point-to-point measurements for each block in that border? Or perhaps compared it with the opposite border that fits perfectly? I'm thinking that you might need to make some of the seams a tiny bit smaller or larger, even if it means having a little "air" around a block or having the corner clipped a teeny amount. Because of the little variations among my blocks, one of my borders was around 1/8" too short. I solved it by taking off the 2 outside half-square triangles, sewing new ones on and trimming them after I sewed that border to its neighbor.

Good luck figuring this out. Kathy

[Margo C.]

Shawn, the fact that you got 3 out of 4 borders to fit perfectly is wonderful and 1/4" isn't too much to deal with! I would guess that the problem is probably in the setting triangles. Maybe they got slightly stretched at some point? At any rate, Nan's suggestion sounds right to me. Get each corner lined up and do what you have to do to ease in the middle. Sometimes a gentle steam blocking can help shrink or stretch the parts to fit better. Just be careful that you don't distort it in the wrong direction! Good luck.

[Kathryn S.]

Hi Shawn and Margo,

I think I fixed my border issues (fingers crossed). I took off the two narrow borders, and measured. Found around 1/2 inch difference between the center (longer) and the sides. I pressed out like Margo said, and I also looked at the corners to see if they were square. Two of them were cut so the corner dipped inward. It was simple to take off those two half-square triangles, sew new ones on, and trim using the 12 inch square ruler. Then I measured the narrow border very carefully. so far it looks much better.

I probably ought to go back and re-look at Sally Collins' book.

Does anyone have her DVD?

Kathy

[Margo C.]

Good for you, Kathy!

That is why I stressed squaring up the end on my Webshots album tutorial! Getting those ends square is important!

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...74879488jFYmzg

[Margo C.]

One thing about being one of the last ones to finish for the month is all the lovely advice I get to read on issues others had. I just got my borders together this weekend, trimmed and ready to sew. I put the floater on yesterday evening, and pinned the two short borders. So far so good. I was thinking about basting the short borders on/ and then pinning the long borders to just check the fit before sewing them. Do y'all think basting would cause stretch in the borders? I stopped last night as I was tired and I make way more mistakes when I am tired. I won't get back to it til off work this afternoon or evening. Sandi in FL