Mitered Border

I got the borders on my Crossroads quilt this weekend, though not without some difficulty (aka unsewing).

I am using this holly stripe fabric for the border.  It is from an older Moda line by April Cornell called Christmas Presence.  When I saw the Crossroads pattern, I knew it would be a good use of this print.  The strips run lengthwise on the fabric, with five stripes across the width of the fabric.

I initially cut the stripes apart so that the solid red between each of the holly stripes would form the edges of each border. But when I got the first border on, I was not happy with the look. There was only about 3/8" of red next to the black inner border and it wasn't enough. After some experimentation, I found the best look could be achieved by trimming the red so it was seam allowance only and sewing on the outer line of the green holly stripes. But that meant unpicking the initial border, 73" long. Not fun, but I did it, trimmed all four borders, then started sewing again.

The effort paid off and I am very happy with how the borders look now.

Oh, and did I mention mitered corners?  Mitered corners are not my favorite part of quilting but sometimes they are necessary.  Definitely with this print, so I forged ahead.

 

And actually, they were not that difficult.  Maybe I've had enough practice now to become fairly proficient.  (I think this is the third or fourth time I've mitred the corners on a border.)  They turned out quite nicely.  Here's a close-up.

 

 

I found some fabric in my stash that might work for the back.  I just need to measure and be sure I have enough. 

 

Getting closer to another finish!