Tutorial
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Quilting Borders with Borders Made Easy®
These patterns can be stitched using your home sewing machine, your Handi Quilter®, long arm or short arm systems.
The roll with the quilting design printed on it is 26 feet long, with adhesive strips on the edges. The adhesive leaves no residue on your quilt and can be repositioned several times. Do not iron or stitch through the adhesive on the edges. When choosing your pattern, remember to consider the border seam allowance and also allow for the binding on outside borders.
The dashed vertical lines along the pattern can be used to elongate or shorten the pattern to fit between the corners. Four corner patterns are included in the core of the pattern that do not have adhesive. They must be pinned or spray basted in place.
This tutorial is basic instructions for Borders Made Easy® patterns. Some of the patterns will have additional instructions printed on the pattern or included in the core.
Prepare your quilt for quilting by layering the backing, batting and quilt top. Baste or pin. Please consult your favorite quilt book or look online for more information about this step. Any basting that will be under the Border Pattern should be done with thread.
Quilt the center area of your quilt before starting the borders. Thread baste borders to prevent shifting of layers while quilting.
Place the Corner Patterns
You will find the corner patterns in the core of the roll along with instructions. Cut apart and pin at the corners of your quilt top. Most of the corner patterns have registration marks at the bottom right of each corner that can be used to line up the Border Pattern. These marks can also be used for corner placement by lining up the inside seam of your quilt border with the registration
marks.
This shows the corner registration marks lined up with the inside border seam. If your border is wider, you might choose to line up the edge of the border pattern on the seam (see next picture).
Line up Border Pattern between Corners
Measure and cut Border Pattern length to fit between Corner Patterns. Align Border Pattern so it meets Corner Pattern making sure dotted and solid lines match where applicable. You will probably need to cut the Border Pattern at the dashed vertical line and elongate or overlap to fit. Spread the adjustments over several sections and you won’t notice the pattern irregularity when the paper is removed.
This shows the pattern elongated in a few sections to fit the Border Pattern between the Corner Patterns.
This shows the pattern overlapped to fit between corners. You may want to redraw the stitching line with a quilt marking pen (shown in red).
Attach the pattern to your quilt
Once the Border Pattern strip placements are determined, remove the adhesive cover on the side closest to the center of the quilt first, pressing the pattern to your quilt as the adhesive is exposed. The dashed margin lines or the edge of the pattern can be used as a guide for alignment. Remember to consider the seam allowance for binding. Remove the outside adhesive cover pressing the pattern down as you go. The adhesive is repositionable so you can make adjustments to your placement if necessary.
Stitching the Pattern
A stitch length of 8-12 stitches per inch is recommended for patterns in the 100 series. A regular or walking foot can be used with these patterns. If you are using a 400 series pattern, you will need to drop or cover your feed dogs and use a free motion or darning foot. You can google free motion quilting and watch instructional videos if you are not familiar with this type of quilting. You might want to practice on a section of the pattern before you start quilting your quilt. Stitch all around your quilt top following a dashed and/or solid line, lock the stitching when you start with a knot or by stitching several very small stitches. Do the same when you return to your starting position. Move to another line, repeat until all lines are stitched.
Stitch all lines in the pattern. The paper will get ‘softer’ or not as stiff as you work with it, this makes paper removal easier.
If your border is wider than the pattern you chose, you can tear away the adhesive strips after all lines are stitched and ‘echo’ the outside edges of the pattern to make it wider. DO NOT stitch through the adhesive strips.
Paper Removal
When done stitching all lines on the pattern, all around your quilt, first tear away the adhesive strip. Then hold the stitching down with your fingertip and carefully tear the paper away with your other hand. For easier paper removal, run a needle or blunt tool next to the stitching. The paper will tear away neatly where the stitching perforated the paper.
Small flecks of paper caught under the stitching can be easily scratched away with your fingernail or removed with sharp tweezers.
If you have any questions, please call Wendy at 208-676-8689
