However, in the light of Bilbo's comment yesterday, where she said, 'Do factor in the effect of quilting.....any quilting causes the top to shrink slightly. OK, you are never likely to quilt as heavily as I would, but the more you quilt, the smaller the finished item becomes.", I've had a rethink.I've decided to err on the side of caution, and add another inch onto the outer border - it can always be trimmed back a bit after I've quilted the centre section.
Which neatly brings me to a quick question - as the border is so wide, joining the border strips together in the traditional way with a diagonal join is quite wasteful of fabric, so is there any reason not to 'butt-up' the strips to do a straight seam?
If you want to butt the seam go right ahead. You can do long sides, or short sides, or even add corner stones of a block similar to those already in the quilt which might be cute. Some like the look of a mitered corner, but there is no increased benefit to the miter.
ReplyDeleteGreat quilt! I feel that you only need to do diagonal seams when you are concerned with the bulk of the seam allowance (such as in binding). I always use straight seams when I have to piece borders because it's no different than piecing the rest of the quilt. Plus, if I feel that I need to match the pieces of fabric to "hide" the seam, it's easier with straight seams.
ReplyDeleteNo reason, I usually use straight seams to join borders. The quilt's looking great!
ReplyDeleteI usually do angled joins so I don't have too much bulk from the seam in a straight line, but I also do straight seams if it's a wide border and I might run of fabric.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your advice, girls - so helpful! :-)
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