Whether you quilt your quilts yourself or send them to a long arm quilter, ruffled borders are the most difficult problem to overcome. Some problems can be “quilted out” but ill-fitted borders isn’t one of them. Our panel of Red River Valley Machine Quilters who spoke at the February meeting said that is it easier to deal with backings that are too short than it is with ruffled edges.
If you simply cut your border to fit the length of each side but the quilt isn’t square, you will get the dreaded ruffled border. The way to overcome the problem is to measure, measure, measure.
Measure the length of the quilt in three places in the center–not on the edges. If your measurements vary, calculate the average of the three measurements and cut your border to that length. Repeat this process for the width of the quilt.
If your border is longer than your top’s edge, ease in the fullness of the border as you pin. If your border is too short for the edge, ease in the fullness of the top as you pin. This process will give you a quilt with nice flat borders.