Finishing color touches, the border(s) and binding.
Borders
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| Diamond Run |
I love a good border. There are a few of my patterns that don't have borders, but if I can add a border, or two, or three, I do it with joy.
Borders can give your eye a stopping point on a quilt that has a lot going on.
They can frame a gorgeous design, making it the center of attention.
Borders can add to the design of the quilt.
They are a great place to add that large print you fell in love with, but would not have worked well within the pattern, like we talked about last week.
Sometimes, the border fabric is picked before the rest of the fabrics, simply because it called your name.
How do you pick a good border?
1) First it's important to remember, just because a pattern does or does not call for a border, doesn't mean you have to do what it says. If you think your quilt top needs a border, or more than one, go for it. If your quilt top is telling you it doesn't want a border, skip the border.
2) If you are choosing a border based on fabric you have already chosen, lay it out across all of the fabrics. Even if the border won't be next to a certain fabric, it will be seen with it, so should compliment it.
3) Did you fall in love with a large (or small) print that you want to base your fabric colors off of? Just like the tip above, you want to lay those fabrics over the border fabric. You don't have to pull every color from that border, that could get very overwhelming, but the few you do should compliment it.
Binding
Binding is THE final touch for your quilt. The more confident I've gotten in myself as a quilter, the more stripey my bindings have gotten. 😂
Seriously, I love a good striped binding. So much so, I'm not a fabric collector, but I do buy striped fabric whenever I see one I love. Other than flamingo fabric, it's the one fabric I will buy without having a plan for it. Ok, I do the same with purple.
Before I fell in love with stripes though, I was a matchy, matchy girl with my binding, and for the most part I still am.
I have a hard time not matching the binding fabric to the border fabric. While I can play a bit with borders, I truly want a stopping point to my quilt, and feel binding is that stop.
When there isn't a border then I usually do a dark fabric to make sure it does stop the eye at the edge.
I have been know to switch it up a bit, though and use a bright fabric color pulled from the top. Just like the border fabric, you will find what you like, just be open to try different binding options. Sometimes a quilt will make you do something you don't usually do, and it makes you a better quilter. 💜
So how do you choose binding if the quilt isn't talking to you?
1) You can always use the same fabric you used for the border, for the binding. It will blend in nicely and you know it works with the quilt.
2) Pull a fabric that you used in the quilt. The teal binding I used on the Quilt Crush quilt above was the same fabric I used in the center of the blocks. While it made the binding pop, it was a continuation of that fabric and so still brings your eye to a stop.
3) Go stripey! 😉 Seriously, a stripe or patterned binding can add a special, uniquely you touch to the end of your quilt. Find one that is tone on tone, two colors or multicolored. If you can find one that has the colors of your top in it, go for it.
4) If all else fails, go for a solid binding that is the darkest color in either the quilt top or the border. It will say this quilt is finished and that's just the way I like it.
Make something extraordinary!
Jen
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Nice post! Binding is my favorite part of quilt making. Like you, I used to play it safe and be sure that the binding fabric was used somewhere in the quilt. But...I typically did not use the same fabric for binding as I used in a plain border. I have always liked the idea of a final frame for the quilt. :-) I really enjoy using a stripe for binding as well as a scrappy binding. I think they both add a wonderful final touch to any quilt. Borders on the other hand have often been my stumbling block. I struggle over what fabric to use, piece it or not, and how wide to make it. ARRGHHHH! Honestly, there have been times that I simply made more blocks instead of adding a border so the quilt ended up being the size I wanted and I didn't have to make those decisions. LOL Craziness! :-)
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