Have you ever had your quilt blocks all pieced together, but then been totally stumped on what to do for the borders? Me too! Haha! I will show you what I came up with, and maybe it will inspire some creative ideas in you too!
Last week, I was working on my first Dresden Plate quilt (you can see that post here). I made some different kind of block arrangements that are whimsical and maybe a little artsy. So when I got to the border, I had to pause (but not for long because this quilt had to be finished for my friend’s birthday. Yikes!) How in the world do you wrap this thing up with traditional borders? It just wouldn't look right.
I decided I'd do three borders (two cut at 1.5” and one cut at 5”). Then, I had the idea to carry the Dresden block design out into the border.
This was actually much easier than I had first thought, because I just had to applique the Dresden block down on the corner using the blind hem applique technique from last week's post.
Using this idea as a jumping off point, you could carry just about any block from the quilt out into the border no matter what the pattern. Piece it in or applique it down, either way, it makes for a much more interesting border.
I finished the quilt just in time to wrap it up and deliver it to the birthday girl :) Just look at her face! Haha! That’s the best!
Here are a couple of other quilts I've seen lately that have creative answers to the border question. This ribbon twist one is clever and very simple; it's just a half square triangle style unit rotated 180 degrees to create a ribbon look.
My fingers are showing the edge of each unit (each one is 2.5” but they could be resized to fit any quilt).
Here is another Dresden Plate quilt where she used up all the scraps from the fan blades to make a colorful border that ties it all together! No scrap left behind I say :)
How 'bout that?! I hope this helps if you’re stuck in the Bland Border Backcountry!
Happy Sunday everyone,
Krista
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#Dresden plate
#quilt borders