Thank you everyone for your helpful suggestions. This is such a great quilting community!
Linda

I don't think it will be a problem with this border if you have to piece it.
The two side borders have the trees down on the lower half that nearly cover the full width - perfect place to hide a seam!

Thanks Mike,
That makes perfect sense to me. I was thinking along those lines, but wondering about the applique on the corners. But hopefully it will work just fine.
Linda

Hi Linda -
If you tweak the borders, so instead of attaching top and bottom borders first (very short) and then adding side borders (very long), you instead add side borders first (medium short - the length of the quilt center) followed by top and bottom borders (medium long - the width of the quilt center plus the attached side borders), your fabric length should work. This means moving the top and bottom of the side borders to the ends of the top and bottom borders - and probably means appliquéing the trees and some of the starry vines after everything is sewn together - but you wouldn't have to purchase an additional 2-1/2 yards of light blue. Does that make sense? Good luck!
Best wishes,
Mike

Not doing this bom, but if you need to piece a couple of the borders to get the length, if you add the piece on at a 45 degree seam allowance it should be less noticeable. Trying to get it under some applique will also help.

And after that my mother's advice of 'Keep moving & nobody will notice' comes to mind - although that works much better for clothes than quilts

Hope someone can give me some advice - when I pulled out my fabric to cut the light blue borders, I realized I had only a 2 yard piece. My mistake! I had included the half yard piece that I had previously, and included that into the total of 2 1/2 yard total. So my question is, if I cut the side borders first, and set them aside, and then add the top and bottom borders later, will I be able to make it all work? I realize that some of the applique will have to be pulled aside, to be done at a later time. If I do this, I think I can do it without buying additional fabric. What do you think? Thanks for your help.

Linda

I looked the forum posts "October BOM" and "Blanket stitch for G&O" and also Janet's "10 things you need to know". Janet says to cut/tear the border fabric into 4 - 9 1/2" lengths. Mike says in the October pattern we mark the borders 2 x 8 1/2" x 47 1/2" and the 2 x 8 1/2" x 82 1/2", which we will cut larger to allow for the shrinkage from applique. Rita I know how you feel about the cost of fabric, that was the main reason I wanted the measurements confirmed so I didn't have to repurchase fabric if I got the measurements wrong. I will leave the border cutting for a couple of days so I can be sure of the measurements before I cut.
Best Wishes to all Pam in Scotland.

In the supply list, 2 1/2 yes of light blue is listed. So the length we cut the border strips should be 90 inches as we were asked to cut the borders first.

Reetzbobeetz wrote: Totally agree. A very beautiful design, but lots of questionning on the instructions. And tearing apart fabric? just a waste of at least 1/2 inch each time because the fabric becomes distorted on that border...

Andrée

I don't think it would have been unreasonable to be given the actual measurements of the blue borders this month. As somebody who lives in a country where fabric is not dirt cheap all this over-sizing and trimming down is breaking my heart. As for tearing the strips - now why the heck would I do that when I have a perfectly good rotary cutter, board, ruler and workstation There's mystery and there's just plain mystified. Please, please, please, whoever is providing next years BOM, can you get your pattern checked properly before it begins to roll out. Oh, and one more thing, please could you provide a photo of the finished quilt in each month's instructions for reference. OK, I am off the box now.

Look in the October BOM section of this discussion page, someone has posted the answer.

What width and length do we cut/tear the 4 borders? I'm sure that I have seen the measurements somewhere but can't find them.
Best Wishes
Pam in Scotland