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Borders for your Quilts

© Jeanne Walsh

What useful purpose do borders on quilts fill? When you have the blocks all made, laid out or maybe even sewn together, what do you want the border to do? One good reason to add a border is to extend the size of the quilt. Another might be to frame or "show off" the blocks. Whatever your purpose, several simple borders have been shown in the many articles and photos here on Suite 101. Let's gather a few of them together to help in your decision.

In March 2000, we showed a variety of borders. The butterfly quilt near the bottom of the page has a narrow inner border (about 2 inches), then a spacer of about 10 inches, and a final 2-inch border. Obviously, this final treatment was to increase the size of the quilt.

Also on that page is this photo:

This planning appears to be to enhance the color of the quilt and also to increase size.

A child's quilt appearing in May 2001 uses a plain border with corner motifs that coordinate with the applique of the blocks. Also in that article is a quilt with blocks set on point. This layout then needed setting triangles to fill in the edge which became the border.

Feb 2001 shows this 3-piece border, each succeeding strip increasing in size, completing the small quilt.

This medallion quilt,June 2003,uses a pieced inner border, a spacer and a pieced final border. The two pieced borders are adding color and interest to the large neutral areas of this quilt.

When a wall hanging must fit a certain wall space, the borders can or must be adjusted. This was the case in the small quilt in Nov 2002. The narrow dark strip before the final homespun border is actually a narrow piping to take the place of a border (which we didn't have room for and we needed the color).

No border at all is, of course, an option, especially in a scrappy quilt. It is what I chose to do in my millenium quilt. I really like it now that the quilt is finished and bound, though I was skeptical when I sent it off to be quilted.

A fancier pieced border called "Seminole" was shown in May 2002. I now think that border is a little too busy for the Irish Chain, but I guess the two-color quilt has enough light space to tone it down a bit.

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