jillmc

I am going to attempt my first scalloped border. The quilt is actually for me, so it's a perfect learning project! It will be twin sized once I add the 5" borders.
Had to order additional fabric (a common occurrence in my little world! ha) for the borders, and I have been researching while waiting its arrival.

Do you prefer to: use a special ruler or make a template out of freezer paper (my preference, I think), or different
method?

: quilt before or after cutting the scalloped border? It never occurred to me to quilt it before
cutting the scallops until I started reading tutorials online!

:any other words of wisdom for a novice?

Thanks!!!

ckcowl

I have always cut my freezer paper the length/width of the scalloped border, folder it to about 12" long, draw my scallops, cut, then lay it out. I have Always quilted first, then cut the scallops... Never thought about cutting them first.

Quilt30

I assume that if you cut after quilting, you have at least marked the scallops since the scallop edge may figure in the quilting design.

MarLeClair

I used Eleanor burn's ruler and the directions are very clear. You have to mark your scallops before quilting. After quilting you can cut. If you don't mark first you might cut off the quilting design when doing the scallops.

quiltstringz

The few times I have done this I did it after it was quilted. I did mark with something that will not come off the scallops before quilting. You want to make sure you will see the markings after it is quilted - ask me how I know this! Do not use a disappearing ink pen, especially if it is humid

QuiltnNan

i would quilt first, then cut. and i plan it out on paper and then just put a plate or something within the divisions. i've only made one scallop border

Tartan

I have a top waiting to be quilted that I am doing a scalloped border on. I figured out how many for each side with paper. I then used a dinner plate to get my curves. Took a bit of figuring to get the corners to work out perfectly.
I drew my scallops with my Frixion pen onto the borders to make sure everything would work out perfectly. Once it was drawn on, I straight stitched on my lines so I could iron off the Frixion lines. Since my border fabric was a pale yellow so I didn't have to worry about the Frixion pen leaving lines after ironing. If your border fabric is dark, use white chalk to mark it so you can erase any mistakes.
I will quilt the top first before cutting. Having the solid border allows you to FMQ up to 1/4 inch from the lines with still having the extra fabric to hold on to.

Peckish

Absolutely do not cut your scallops until after it's been quilted AND you have the binding attached. Think about trying to quilt scallops and having to make sure all those bias, curvy edges stay down and behave....

When I made my scalloped quilt, every tutorial and blog out there said to use a plate or some other round item. However, none of those were the right size and shape for what I wanted for my quilt, so I made my own scallops with the help of EQ. Because I wanted my scallops to curve around my on-point blocks, I measured how tall they were, then went into EQ and drew a block with the height and width I wanted. The scallops I wanted were 15" tall and 5" wide. I then drew a "bezier curve" in that block, printed it, cut it out, taped it to my quilt, and marked it.

HTH

Feathers-N-Fur

For me, the Eleanor Burns QIAD template was worth the $10 or so I paid for it. I've used it for marking vines on a quilt as well as scalloped or wave borders. There are ruler markings on it to make your math easy.

Mdegenhart

Borders Made Easy on a Roll. Scroll down and look at #403. This was how we did scalloped borders in my intermediate class.

http://www.quiltingmadeeasy.com/borders-made-easy/