Baby Quilt, Part 3

Making borders that lay flat is difficult for many people. They just cut a strip of fabric and sew it to the side of their quilt and then find that the border ripples or isn't the same length as the opposing side. Here's the 411 on flat borders: With the squares all pieced, measure across the middle of the work from edge to edge and cut two one and a half inch (or whatever width you like!) border strips exactly that measure.

Working on a flat surface to prevent stretching the pieced block edges, match the center of the quilt and the center of the border. Pin, easing to fit if necessary. If one side is longer than the other, put the long side on the bottom when you sew so the action of the feed dogs will help ease in the excess.

Press seam toward border.

Now measure the quilt longwise, (This will include the width of the two new borders.) and cut two one and a half inch borders exactly that measure.

Again, match centers, and working on a flat surface, pin borders to pieced edges. Sew and press seam toward border.
Follow exactly the same procedure to add the second border. (I used three inch strips for the second border.) Press the seams toward the final border.

I pin baste these baby quilts and use a hoop to hand quilt them.

Once this one is quilted, I'll do another post on the binding.