Picklelady

hi all! I am putting a brick strips on as a border. I am not sure about the sizes. My finished blocks are 9.5". the quilt is 44 x 54. I'm using a 4.5" wide strip and am wondering what length I should use. Can anyone help??

thanks

Holice

difficult to tell without seeing the body of the quilt.
length will depend on the look you want. I am wondering tho, if your blocks finish at 9.5" and you want to match sizes with your blocks, shoudn't the width of your strips also finish at a combination of 9.5 If two strips equal the 9.5 then the width should be about 4 1/8 finished. Your 4.5" width might finish at a bit smaller than the width of the block. Or is my math head not fully awake this morning.

Picklelady

thanks for answering... I have done a very simple quilt design--chenille is alternated with a butterfly block of regular cotton. the middle of the quilt os 36 x 44 without borders at this point. I really don't know if there is a protcol for sizing the borders and I really want to make the finished quilt including the borders to be about 44 x 54 give or take an inch or two. I am planning on only using one border strip. does this help??

thanks so much.

Holice

If you want the width to be 44" and the center is now 36" then there is an 8" difference or 4" on each side. Since you have cut the strips 4.5" that would make squares for the border unless you cut the 4.5 in half for a 2"x4" strip
Add seam allowances, of course. Your length will then be 52" finished.

Picklelady

thanks. I guess what I was wondering is... should the strips be the same length like half the length of the quilt block OR like 6.5" a bit longer OR different lengths i.e., 3.5, 4.5 and 5.5??

thanks again.

Holice

i guess i don't understand your use of the word length especially with "brick" border design. I see rectangular strips but you only have 4" in length (or is it width) to make the quilt only 44" wide. To me "brick" means a rectangular strip.

Picklelady

Hi- yes it is rectangular. Sorry I may not be giving a good explanation. I have cut and sewn some bricks together at 4.5" wide and 6.5" long and I can see that I need to make the bricks longer or shorter to suit my taste. I thank you for taking the time to respond to me. I appreciate your comments.

Have a nice day and thanks again!