Welcome to the last project of How to Quilt: A Beginner’s Guide
Now, let’s look at the All-Border Quilt!
Finished Size: 54″ x 62″
This throw-sized quilt has a large rectangle of large print fabric at its center, and the rest of the quilt is made up of borders. This is also known as medallion style. This quilt is designed to give you lots of practice with all kinds of borders. It will call on everything you’ve learned in this class (and life) about accuracy, creativity, and persistence.
We’ve practiced all these techniques in this series, but we’re applying them in a new way with this quilt.
We’ve made a playlist of uquilt videos that show you pre-sewing skills. This week, especially review the video How to Strip Piece
VIDEO
Now that we’re caught up on our skills, let’s start the All-Border Quilt!
Part 1 – Center and Border 1 VIDEO
Part 2 – Borders 2-5VIDEO
All-Border Quilt
The fabrics to make the All-Border Quilt in the fabrics pictured above are part of the How To Quilt Fabric Bundle , which includes all the fabrics for the series. There’s also a starter kit  with sewing and quilting supplies.
Fabric/Supply Requirements for the All-Border Quilt
2 1/8 yard – Large Floral Print for Center, Snowball Border and Outer BorderWonder Clips Roxanne Glue-Baste-It (optional)Sewline Trio Colors Fabric Pencil (optional)
Cutting Instructions By Border
Center
From the large floral print fabric, cut:
Four-Patch Border (Border 1)
From the light eggplant fabric, cut:
From the navy fabric, cut:
From the multi print fabric, cut:
Double Mitered Border (Border 2)
From the multi print fabric, cut:
From the dark fuchsia fabric, cut:
Snowball Border (Border 3)
From the large floral print fabric, cut:
From the dark fuchsia fabric, cut:
From the stripe fabric, cut:
Long Horizontal Border (Border 4)
From the dark fuchsia fabric, cut:
Outer Border (Border 5)
(7) 6 1/2″ x WOF strips
Assembly
Four-Patches
Sew the navy 2 1/2″ x WOF strip and the light eggplant strip together with a quarter inch seam allowance on the long side. Repeat with the navy and multi print strip. Sew the 2 1/2″ x 11″ rectangles from the multi print and the light eggplant strip to the navy 2 1/2″ strip trimmed from the 4 1/2″ strip. Press all strips towards the navy.
Measuring from the seam, cut (20) 2 1/2″ segments from the navy/light eggplant strips and (20) 2 1/2″ segments from the navy/multi print strips.
Sew the pairs together into Four Patches, oriented as shown below.
Four-Patches measure 4 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ unfinished, make 20 Four-Patches.
Sew (6) Four-Patches together to make a side border measuring 4 1/2″ x 24 1/2″ unfinished. Make 2.
Sew the side borders to the left and right side of the center 16 1/2″ x 24 1/2″ rectangle. Press towards the center.
Sew (4) Four Patches together with a navy 4 1/2″ square at each end for the cornerstones to make a top/bottom border measuring 4 1/2″ x 24 1/2″ unfinished. Press towards the cornerstones. Make 2.
Sew the top and bottom borders to the quilt center, making sure to lock the seams at the cornerstones.
Quilt measures 24 1/2″ x 32 1/2″ unfinished. If your quilt is larger or smaller, check your seam allowances for any size issues. It doesn’t have to be exact, but discrepancies over 1/4″ can start to affect later borders. Take your time with this, because it will pay off later.
Double Mitered Border
Trim a selvage from a multi print 2 1/2″ x WOF strip and sew this end to the short end of the leftover multi print 2 1/2″ strip from the Four-Patches border. Cut the combined strip into (2) 2 1/2″ x 35″ approximately.
Sew a dark eggplant 1 1/2″ x WOF strip to a multi print 2 1/2″ strip. Repeat for all four strips to make the border pieces.
Turn the quilt center to the back and measure 1/4″ in from both sides of the outer corners of the navy cornerstones and mark all four corners.
Press the border pieces in half, short sides together, to find the center point. Align the center of the border piece to the center of the quilt, right sides together. Pin in place and bring to the sewing machine.
At the sewing machine, sew with the Four-Patches border facing up so you can see the 1/4″ mark from a couple steps ago. Bring the needle down right at the 1/4″ mark, sew a couple stitches, backstitch a couple (not going past the mark) and sew the border on, again stopping at the 1/4″ on the other end and securing with a backstitch.
Repeat this process on all four sides of the quilt. Make sure not to sew through a previous border, which can happen if you sew past the 1/4″ mark.
Miter Marking
Fold the quilt in half diagonally right sides together. Pinch two borders together so they are evenly aligned along the long edge at a corner. Pin near the top and several inches from the seam intersection for stability.
Place a ruler at a 45-degree angle to the border seam so the edge of the ruler is the point where the border seams meet and extends out past the long edge of the border. Lightly mark from the 1/4″ mark where the border seams meet to the outer long edge of the border.
Either pin the marked line and open the quilt back up gently to check the miter looks good and the dark fuchsia meets, or glue baste using the following method.
With the ruler still over the quilt, gently unpin the borders and fold the top border back over the ruler. Run a thin bead of Roxanne Glue-Baste-It alone the bottom border. Pay special attention at this step that the smaller dark fuchsia borders match exactly. Lay the top border over the bottom border and apply gentle pressure where the glue is applied. Give a minute or two for the glue to set, or heat set it with an iron.
Once the glue is set, gently open the quilt. Manipulate the seam allowances or the previous border and the direction of the miter seam so everything is laying the direction you want. Use your fingers to gently press and audition the miter. It may be necessary to wet the glue to release its hold and shift the borders, especially if the dark fuchsia borders don’t match or the raw edges of the borders don’t match. Manipulate the fabric until the miter looks just like you want. Once you are satisfied, press a crease to set the miter.
With the miter crease set, fold the quilt again and mark the crease with a pencil or marking tool to create the sewing line. Repin to either side of the sewing line for stability.
Miter Sewing
At the sewing machine, bring the needle down in the 1/4″ mark where the border seams meet, secure with a backstitch, and then sew down the marked sew line.
Unfold the quilt and check the miter now before trimming to take another shot at the seam if needed.
Once satisfied with the miter, trim 1/4″ from the seam. Repeat on the remaining corners.
The quilt should measure 30 1/2″ x 38 1/2″ unfinished at this point. If your quilt came out larger by over 1/4″ trim the quilt to size. If it came out smaller by over 1/4″ then don’t sweat, the next border has a little grace built in!
Snowball Assembly
Mark the wrong sides of the dark fuchsia and stripe 1 3/8″ squares in half diagonally once. Lay a dark fuchsia square over the corner of a floral print 4 1/2″ square and sew on the marked line. Trim a quarter inch seam and press. Repeat on the diagonally opposite corner with another dark fuchsia square.
Make four Snowball units that have dark fuchsia on all four corners, and four Snowball units with stripe on the remaining corners as shown below.
Snowball Row
Sew a stripe 4 1/2″ x 17 1/2″ rectangle to the left and right side of a Snowball unit with all fuchsia corners. Repeat to make 2 long side Snowball Borders.
Fold a long side border in half to find center. Pin the center right sides together to the center point of the quilt. Pin in place. Sew a 1/4″ seam allowance and press. Repeat on the other long side.
If your quilt is smaller than 30 1/2″ x 38 1/2″ do as follows:
Trim the ends of the long side borders even to the quilt.
Sew a stripe 4 1/2″ x 13 1/2″ rectangle to the left and right side of a Snowball unit with all fuchsia corners. Repeat to make 2 top and bottom Snowball Borders.
If your quilt is smaller than 38 1/2″ x 38 1/2″ do as follows: Fold the Top Snowball Border in half to find center. Pin the center right sides together to the center point of the quilt. On the wrong side of the Top Snowball Border, mark 1/4″ from the point where the long side border meets the Double Mitered Border. Repeat on the other end. The top border should be 1/2″ longer than the finished size of the top of the Double Mitered Border. Trim the Bottom border to the same size as the Top border. Unpin and follow the next step.
Sew a Snowball unit with half dark fuchsia, half stripe corners to the ends of the Top and Bottom Snowball Borders. Pin the top border so the cornerstone Snowball units and the side borders lock seams and pin towards the center. Sew a 1/4″ seam allowance and press. Repeat on the bottom border.
The quilt measures 38 1/2″ x 46 1/2″ at this point. It’s okay if yours is a little smaller or larger at this step, because the next border is made to fit whatever size the quilt it needs to be.
Long Horizontal Border
Sew the five dark fuchsia 2 1/2″ x WOF strips together into one long strip with diagonal seams as follows.
On a hard workspace, place a strip right side up horizontally with the tail (long ends) pointing towards your non-dominant hand. Lay another strip over the first strip at a 90-degree angle, right sides together, with the tail pointing towards you.
Place a ruler over the strips intersecting at a 45-degree angle as shown below and mark.
Pin the selvage ends and carefully fold the strip open following the marked line to check that the seam will create a long, continuous strip.
Once you’ve confirmed, replace the top strip over and secure with another pin. Sew on the marked line and trim a 1/4″ seam allowance.
Repeat until all the strips are sewn together.
Preventing Warping
Before cutting our Long Horizontal Borders to size, we want to measure the quilt. While it’s tempting to sew the strips on and trim the ends, this can lead to warping if the outside of the quilt is a different size than the center of the quilt, which is fairly common. To prevent this, we measure in three places and average as follows.
To find the measurement for the sides, measure the quilt across the left side, right side, and through the long part of the center. Add the three measurements together and divide by 3. Cut two border strips this length from the dark fuchsia strips. Start pinning from the center and sew the borders on with a 1/4″ seam allowance. Press.
Repeat the measurement step, but this time measure the top, bottom, and through the short part of the center. Sew as before.
The quilt measures 42 1/2″ x 50 1/2″ unfinished at this step. It’s okay if yours is a little smaller or larger at this step, because the next border is made to fit whatever size the quilt it needs to be.
Outer Border
This outer border is a basic mitered border.
Trim the selvages from the 7 large floral print 6 1/2″ x WOF strips and sew them together into one long strip.
We’re going to measure like we did for the previous border and add enough extra for the miter and for our comfort with the following formula: Length of quilt side the border is going on + 2 times the width of all the borders (for the miter) + approximately 6 inches (for our comfort). So for our long sides of the Outer border, measure the sides and through the center as in the previous border to find the length of the quilt, add 13 inches, add 6 inches.
The long sides will be approximately 6 1/2″ x 69 1/2″ unfinished. The short sides will be approximately 6 1/2″ x 61 1/2″ unfinished.
To sew the borders on, repeat all the steps from the sections Double Mitered Border , Miter Marking & Miter Sewing ignoring any instructions about the center seam because this border is a single miter.
The quilt measures 54 1/2″ x 62 1/2″ unfinished. Congratulations on making the top! Next week we’ll start pre-quilting work like sewing the backing, basting, and thread selection.
Next steps…
Ready to quilt? Click Here to check out Quilting the All-Border Quilt!
Learn about quilt labels and binding: two important final steps in quiltmaking. Click Here!
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American Quilter Magazine July 2008 Digital