Camden Road QAL ~ Adding a Border

A great way to make a quilt a bit larger is to add borders. The current trend in modern quilting is to omit any borders, so today I have an idea that may help.

In order to add some width and height to a quilt, without using traditional borders, how about taking a portion of a design element into the border. It's exactly what I'm doing with my Camden Road and it's a nice technique to add some size to many quilts.

It's also a great way to make a quilt the size that you want. In this quilt I made the side borders 5" and the top and bottom borders 2 1/2". It got me to a 40" x 50" quilt that is still visually pleasing.

Start by looking for a design element from the block that could be carried into the border. I decided to continue both the inner and outer background colors. You could even add additional Flying Geese into the border!

It helps to sketch out the design on paper or use quilt design software like EQ. See mine below...

For this quilt, I added the side borders first. Refer to the arrows in the diagram and measure the finished size of "B" for the top and bottom of each border piece, "C" for the inner background, and "D" for the outer background. Adding 1/2" for seam allowance, use your measurements to cut your pieces by whatever width you'd like the border.

Piece and attach the side borders.

For the top and bottom borders, you'll use the same measurements "C" and "D" for the inner and outer backgrounds. You'll need to measure "A" for the four end pieces. Add seam allowances, piece and attach the borders to the top and bottom.

Hope you find this idea helpful and maybe it will come in handy again sometime!