QUILT BORDERS ----- TUTORIAL

Silly me!   Gave someone a small kit with all the pieces cut, a picture of the quilt, but no instructions, so this is for her to do the border, but it may help others too.
I am going to try and explain how I put a simple plain border with cornerstones onto a quilt.  It is not necessarily the right or wrong way, but my way.

I have made a quilt that needs these borders, so will show with it.

First I measure through the middle of the quilt both vertically and horizontally.

I note down these measurements, then measure the top and bottom, note them, then measure the other two sides and also note these.  Being a square quilt, I was lucky that all the measurements were very close to 50 1/2".

I then cut 5 strips (3 1/2" wide for this particular quilt), across the width of my chosen fabric and joined these and cut it into strips measuring 50 1/2' each.  I also cut 4 squares 3 1/2" each to use for cornerstones.

Once this is all done, I take my first border piece and fold it in half and place a pin, then fold each end into this pin and place another 2 pins on the fold,so have 4 quarters marked.

Next I mark the top and bottom of the quilt in the same way and pin two of the border pieces, lining up all the pins, make sure it fits snuggly then sew together.

As the side borders need the cornerstones, these are sewn to each end of the other 2 border pieces, as shown below.

Then proceed to mark the quarters as above and sew to the sides.

Now you should have a pieced top with hopefully nice flat borders.  I do use a walking foot to sew these, but if you are careful and don't pull the top fabric, they should still lay flat, with the foot you usually use.  BTW, all my seam allowances are 1/4".
Finished top shown below.

Some of the photos are not the best, but the light is quite woeful in my sewing room for photography.
This quilt is on my new design wall.  I had to pin the top as it wouldn't stay up as it was too heavy and as I'm short I found it quite difficult to get it up there, so looks all wonky.
Hope this all makes sense, not too long winded and in laymen's terms.

Have a great weekend all and take care.
Susan.