KarenJ

I am about to start my first pieced border ( I've done a piano key border but that wasn't too difficult) and would like ideas on how to best accomplish this. It will be a 2" finished border made entirely of HST's. It will be in the middle of 2 plain borders. The quilt is twin size. How do you keep this straight on a long run? Should I paper piece and remove papers after it's attached to a solid border? I used gridded interfacing for the piano key, but that method shrinks it up just enough (about 1/2" per run) to make it not fit and with HST's this has got to be exact, no wiggle room. Any ideas/suggestions/methods would be very much appreciated.
Thanks!

rainbowcat

Hello Karen

My avatar quilt has a pieced border made out of half square triangles. I did not use any stabilizer and the piecing was fairly straight. Any irregularities dissappeared after the two other borders were added, so no problem there. I did starch the fabric though fairly heavily.

Just try it it will look great. I LOVE pieced borders. They finish a quilt top so nicely!

Quilter 65

I find it makes it easier to make them a scooch bigger and then trim to size being sure that the diagonal line is squarely on the corners of the square up ruler. Then they are perfectly square and go together like a breeze. Since the sides of the square will be on straight or cross of the grain, they shouldn't stretch out of place. Starch always helps and be careful when you press. This is what I have learned over time.