How to Divide and Conquer a Quilt Border

Today’s Topic:  How to Divide and Conquer a Quilt Border

Welcome to Week Eleven of The Better Machine Quilt-a-long based on my book 25 Days to Better Machine Quilting.

Find all of the previous Lessons HERE.

Sign up for emails of the class HERE.

Good Morning, Quilters!

Today we are going to dip into quilt design and learn how to divide and conquer a quilt border in a creative way!

Wide quilt borders and sashing don’t have to be boring.  Divide the border to create smaller, more manageable shapes for quilt design.

For our nine-patch quilt, we will divide the border to create an “on-point” look.

Mark the Lines

First,  place a dot on the center of each border and 1/2 inch from the raw edge.

Mark the center of each border

Connect the dots with a straight edge.

Erase the lines that cross the center nine patch and sashing.

This leaves four small triangles and four large triangles to design.

Use your vinyl overlay or Boogie Board to test motif options.

For my quilt, I filled  the small triangles with closely spaced wavy lines.

 

More Doodling

Spend some time doodling motif options.  Each of the remaining corners can be the same motif or all four corners can be different motifs.

 

I opted for Grid Pop HERE

and  (Page 140 of Free Motion Machine Quilting 1-2-3) in opposing corners and stitched it in two different sizes. I chose Grid Pop because it repeats the square pattern of the nine patch and unites the quilt top design with the quilting design.

In the other corners, I added a curvy contrast-the Dizzy Daisy Motif HERE or page 110 of Free Motion Machine Quilting 1-2-3.

Design by Division

Whenever you are faced with a large blank area for quilting-try dividing the space into smaller sections. Long borders can be divided into triangles or squares and large blocks can be subdivided into smaller squares and triangles.  It’s always easier to design smaller segments.

Also, when you are designing your quilt tops–consider adding wide borders to add machine quilting motifs.

What about YOU?

Have tried the Curlicue Knot?  (See the Video version of the Curlicue Knot on YouTube HERE)

Do YOU ever think about quilting motifs as you plan your quilt top?

Is there a wide border or sashing in one of your UFOs?

Are YOU a committed doodler?

We’d LOVE to hear!

YOUR Conquering Quilter,

Nap-olori-ean Quiltapart

PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy Quilts and are intended for personal use only.  Feel free to re-blog, pin or share with attribution to LKQ.  For all other purposes, please contact me at Lori@LoriKennedyQuilts.com.  Thank you!

Visit my Etsy shop: LoriKennedyShop for all of my books!  They are ALL bestsellers!

6 responses to “How to Divide and Conquer a Quilt Border”

  1. Brilliant! As usual…I will be quilting a Storm at Sea quilt next month, and – due to the points where 8 seams meet – the bulk of the quilt will be very simple, flowing lines. For that reason I wanted to make the border super interesting, and you have given me much food for thought. (The great thing about food for thought is there are no calories!)

  4. When I went to your Dizzy Daisy tutorial, I discovered that the first two spirals look like a snail!

  5. I still get neck aches from quilting…..what am I doing wrong? I try to relax but I guess I am tensing up!

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