Thanks for the encouragement, Margo! I have the first two borders sewn back on and the quilt lays much flatter. From now on I'll use a bigger square ruler to do the squaring off. Maybe tonight I'll get it finished, at least up through October.

And to the person who was going to baste, I think it's a good idea. You'll immediately be able to see if you've got the right length. If you're having to ease in a lot, it will show up and you can take care of it *before* you take the final step of sewing it for real.

I pinned every 1 inch or so on the borders to keep them under control!

Kathy
Margo wrote:

Sandi, if your measurements on the short borders are close to what Sue's directions called for, I don't think you need to baste first. However there's no harm done if you want to take the extra step. Glad you are getting close to having it assembled!

One thing about being one of the last ones to finish for the month is all the lovely advice I get to read on issues others had. I just got my borders together this weekend, trimmed and ready to sew. I put the floater on yesterday evening, and pinned the two short borders. So far so good. I was thinking about basting the short borders on/ and then pinning the long borders to just check the fit before sewing them. Do y'all think basting would cause stretch in the borders? I stopped last night as I was tired and I make way more mistakes when I am tired. I won't get back to it til off work this afternoon or evening. Sandi in FL

Good for you, Kathy!

That is why I stressed squaring up the end on my Webshots album tutorial! Getting those ends square is important!

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/574879488jFYmzg

Hi Shawn and Margo,

I think I fixed my border issues (fingers crossed). I took off the two narrow borders, and measured. Found around 1/2 inch difference between the center (longer) and the sides. I pressed out like Margo said, and I also looked at the corners to see if they were square. Two of them were cut so the corner dipped inward. It was simple to take off those two half-square triangles, sew new ones on, and trim using the 12 inch square ruler. Then I measured the narrow border very carefully. so far it looks much better.

I probably ought to go back and re-look at Sally Collins' book.

Does anyone have her DVD?

Kathy

Shawn, the fact that you got 3 out of 4 borders to fit perfectly is wonderful and 1/4" isn't too much to deal with! I would guess that the problem is probably in the setting triangles. Maybe they got slightly stretched at some point? At any rate, Nan's suggestion sounds right to me. Get each corner lined up and do what you have to do to ease in the middle. Sometimes a gentle steam blocking can help shrink or stretch the parts to fit better. Just be careful that you don't distort it in the wrong direction! Good luck.

Shawn, have you measured the point-to-point measurements for each block in that border? Or perhaps compared it with the opposite border that fits perfectly? I'm thinking that you might need to make some of the seams a tiny bit smaller or larger, even if it means having a little "air" around a block or having the corner clipped a teeny amount. Because of the little variations among my blocks, one of my borders was around 1/8" too short. I solved it by taking off the 2 outside half-square triangles, sewing new ones on and trimming them after I sewed that border to its neighbor.

Good luck figuring this out. Kathy

Nanguilts wrote:
This might work, but the only place there'd be fullness would be from the corner of the star block to the outside edge. On one side the border would be 1/4 inch too short so I could ease in the extra on the main body, but on the other end the border would end up 1/4 too long so the easing would have to happen on the border. Still might be able to manage it. I have a Pfaff with the built in walking foot so that helps ease the top side when you're sewing, too.

I also found it helpful to use the even feed (quilting) foot when adding the border. Dot

Thanks Nan, of course what you wrote makes perfect sense now, just wish I'd thought of it myself first. I'll certainly remember this for the next time I'll run into this problem. Heidi

Yep, I was going to say what Nan said.

Hi Shawn...I matched my corners first, then divided the quilt edge in half and you can distribute or ease the extra main body of the quilt. You should put the main body next to the feed dogs and it should take care of the extra fullnes on the main body of the quilt. I hope I have made this understandable for you. Or you can go back and check the seam allowance for the blocks as previously suggested. Nan in cold upstate New York

I have a similar problem,and went with it like Heidi did.
I have now sewn on the star borders and did the finishing up pressing. Noticed that the quilt wasn't quite 'right' in two corners, so I laid it out on the floor to measure. North/south it measures up the same in 3 places. East/west centre measures the same as the other side, but the outside measurements are short.
Should I take advantage of the bias edges and see if I can get it closer?

Jean in Windsor, ON

Hi Shawn: I had the same problem as you also, and like you am still baffled in what went wrong, because everything else went togetherjust fine, it worked well on 2 sides for me then the other two it did not, I used the TQS fabric that Sue used and the fabric is so busy and blends together nicely that I really don't think it'll be noticeable once it's all put together and quilted, unless someone looks very careful, so I have decided not to be too critical on myself and let it go, Heidi