Usually do not know for sure what my borders will be. Sometimes not even the setting for the blocks I do. Kind of let the fabric tell me what it wants. I know what you mean about getting "strange looks". ha.

My favorite thing to do is find a fabric that I absolutly love, one of those you hate to cut. I use this fabric as the backing and build a quilt around it. I posted the peach barn raising quilt a few weeks ago and it was built using this method. Love what every one else does. great ideas.
peace

I choose all the fabric for the main body of the quilt and shop for border, backing and binding fabric after I see how that goes together. I have purchased everything at once and then didn't like the way the border fabric looked, so I had to buy different fabric. So I buy fabric in stages now.

Norma

Count me as another figure-it-out-as-I-go-along quilter. I often can't really imagine what it's going to look like until I get some of it made. Even quilts that I painstakingly planned beforehand will sometimes take on a life of their own while underway. I enjoy the process.

i start out with a plan and all the material ithat i think will work with the quilt in mind but often change my mind midstream !! but the fabric i bought thinking would look good in the quilt and changed my mind about still looks good in my stash !

Some quilts are planned from start to finish and other are just done as I go - and that is really more fun!

I start however and wherever my "Muse" directs me. Sometimes I begin with a pattern and go in search of the right fabric, whether that be in my stash or in the store. I've learned it is more than "OK" to get just enough fabric to work on the center, and not even think about the borders. Chances are, if I pick up any additional fabric with the first buy, it will end up in my stash. I'm not thinking about batting, backing or binding either. Sometimes the pattern ends up with a completely different border, or sashing is removed or added, appliques appear, etc. Sometimes I'll play around with quilt blocks until I come up with a combination I like -- block and color combination -- and that turns into a quilt top, and then I think about borders, or not, and what am I going to do about the backing? What is so wonderful about the quilting process is that if you just let your creativity loose, you can come up with the most wondrous creations. Of course, not all of them turn out the way you want. I call those "practice pieces", and I know when they're not working, so I stop. It's like writing a story, and you realize it's not working, so you stop writing. But when the writing is working, it's awesome! So yes, I can follow an outline, and do technical writing, or I can let the creative Muse loose and write fiction. To me, quilting and writing are very much alike.

I never plan a whole quilt I just let them take me along for the finish

I'm a seat of the pants type designer. I will often times put to paper the general gist of the quilt & wing it from there. Following patterns is not my style.

I allow the quilt to dictate what borders to add and what the backing should look like. Sometime it just sits there for a long time until I make up my mind.