My Thoughts on Wonky / Bad Borders

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 I have been a professional machine quilter since 1995 and I have seen MANY wonky (or bad) borders.

If you are going to be quilting for others, you WILL get "bad borders."

If you only quilt for yourself, you may have some "bad borders" on your own quilts!

This won't happen all the time, but it will happen enough of the time that you should have some ideas on how to "fix" the situation.

 First of all YOU have to determine what your "comfort level" is when it comes to bad borders. Are you going to fix them - if you can? Or, are you going to quilt them "as is?" There is NO right answer to these questions, the correct answer is "what works for you at THAT time, is the RIGHT way to do it."

Note: In this article, when I talk about borders, I am assuming that the border is a single piece of fabric with NO applique or piecing in the border. The single fabric can be pieced to made long enough to fit the body of the quilt. If a pieced or appliqued border is "bad" I am doing the best I can with it. I WILL NOT re-sew a pieced or appliqued border!

Have I "quilted out" a bad border, yes I have. Was I happy with the results? Sort of. Some bad borders quilted out better than others.

Here are some photos of the wonky / bad borders that I have "quilted out."

Click on any photo for a larger view and a slide show.

Notice the pleats and how I have the quilt pinned in place, before stitching across the top.

And it continued down the sides!

Three borders on this quilt were good. This one wasn't and didn't show up until I "turned" the quilt to stitch the side - now the top after turning -  border.

 

It's hard to believe this is the same border!

And then you get the antique quilts.

With these, "you gotta do what you gotta do!"

Lastly, the strip quilt - with issues!

There was NO way I was taking that quilt apart and fixing it!

But, there have been many times where I was able to take the borders off, re-measure them, trim them and re-sew them to the quilt. And the finished quilt looked amazing!

When I re-do the borders, do I contact my customer first? No, I don't.

I have two reasons why to do NOT contact my customer.

Reason 1 - When they leave their quilt with me and have signed the Customer Worksheet / Intake Form, they are giving me permission to work on their quilt and to do what is necessary to get it done.

Reason 2 - I am a morning person. Sometimes a really early morning person. I don't know if my customer will appreciate me calling them at 5 am and asking permission. I may be able to leave a message, but then I have to wait for them to return my call and sometimes that may take days! I don't want to be "dead in the water" with their quilt until they call back.

Have the customer do the work - Some quilters would say that they would give the quilt back to the customer and have the customer re-do the borders. I don't do that. Again, here are my reasons for NOT having my customer do the work.

 Where I live there are a LOT of longarm quilters. If I give the quilt back to my customer, I may never see that quilt - and the $$ - again.

Note: My quilting and teaching are my ONLY source of income and I NEED the $$ from that quilt to pay things - like a mortgage! (I am not complaining, just explaining!)

Maybe my customer does want to do the work on their quilt and bring it back to me. But her "life" gets in the way of her fixing the quilt. Then you get her call on December 21 (or on the 23)  begging you to quilt her quilt because it is a Christmas gift!

I don't want to refuse my customer but I would because I am furiously quilting / making gifts for my own family!

One other thing - Maybe this customer never learned HOW to apply borders properly. She may have 15 other quilts in her closet waiting to be quilted - maybe by you! If you refuse to work on her quilt, she WILL go to someone else who will be more than happy to quilt those quilts - bad borders and all!

For me - and I speak only for myself - I will do what is necessary, including re-sewing borders, to get the job done.

But re-doing some else's borders takes a lot of time?

In my many years as a machine quilter, I have found that the hour or so I spend re-doing a bad border will be more than made up in the easier quilting when the quilt is on my machine.

If you are a new quilter, just trust me on this. I have horror stories (that I'm not including) about really, really, bad borders that I thought I could quilt out! And I have learned my lessons, the hard way!

If you would like, feel free to print out a copy of my instructions on How to Apply Borders (pdf file) Click Here and give them to your customers - or use the information in your own quilts.

Do I charge extra when I re-do borders? Yes and no.

If this is the first time I am working with the customer, or this is the first time this has happened with a returning customer, I usually don't charge extra. I will give them a one time "freebee."

Also, if I don't catch the bad borders when I look at the quilt during the intake process, that is my mistake and I will not charge the customer.

But, you can be darn sure that the next time that customer comes to me, I will be inspecting EVERY quilt and EVERY border. And yes, if there is a border problem, I will charge extra.

Do I have a "fixing the borders fee." No, I don't have a specific fee for this, but I will add an appropriate amount of $$ to the final fee I am quoting my customer. If I do feel that I will have to re-do the border, especially on a larger quilt, I will add $50 or more to the labor fee.

Borders will "make or break" a quilt, and they will also "make or break" a quilter! Only YOU can determine what will work best for you, your customer, and the quilt you are working on RIGHT NOW!

If you would like to make a comment about this article, please send me an email at longarmu@aol.com. I will post any comments - good or bad - that I receive.

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