Enlarging a Center Panel to Fit a Pieced Border

Last week's blog post was all about a little quilt I made for my granddaughter. The size was 36" x 46", large enough for a crib/cot so I needed to make it larger to fit a single bed. I wanted a pieced border using some of my flower blocks with sashing between them so the size of the border is somewhat restricted. Today I'll explain exactly how to go about making an inner section fit into a border restricted by size.

Let's start with the border. It is made up of two different 12" flower blocks - the dandelion and gerbera (these flower blocks are part of my BOW flower series of more than 60 flower blocks). I made 14 of these blocks to fit around the border.

Between each block, I added a sashing strip that is made up of eight 1-1/2" strips to match the height of the block. Each sashing strip was 3" wide.

Therefore, I had 2 flower blocks with 3 sashing strips for the short side of the quilt, 3 flower blocks with 4 sashing strips for the long sides, and 4 corner blocks.

In math terms that is:

3 + 12 + 3 + 12 + 3 = 33" for the short sides

3 + 12 + 3 + 12 + 3 + 12 + 3 = 48" for the long sides

These measurements determine how big I need to make the inner section: 33" x 48". The measurements for the corners are not needed as it is only the inside edge we need for the calculations.

A few points to take note of:

• You may have noticed I have not included seam allowances. It is really important when working out these calculations not to include them. We add them at the end when it is time to cut the strips. When you are measuring your inner section, be sure to minus the seam allowance before doing any calculations.
• It is much easier to make up the difference between inner section and pieced border with a plain border (or a number of borders). This allows room for adjustments so let's pretend the border was not added to our original quilt yet.
• The widths for the border strips may differ in size.... meaning, the strips for the short sides may be different in width than for the long sides. Make sure you calculate both measurements (this is shown in the 2nd example).

There are two ways to approach this and it depends on the inner section. For my Hornicorns and Butterflies quilt, the inner section can be easily adjusted to fit the space. I can simply add, say a 3" border inside the pieced border bringing the inner edge measurement to 27" x 42" (two 3" border strips, one on each side, so minus 6" from measurements) and make my inner section this size (27" x 42") remembering to add seam allowance. How easy is that?

So in conclusion: you would make the inner section 27-1/2" x 42-1/2" to include seam allowances, cut border strips 3-1/2" wide, make 12-1/2" unfinished blocks, and 3-1/2" x 12-1/2" unfinished sashing strips.

The calculations for an inner section that cannot vary in size is a bit more complicated. I'll show you an example using the same pieced border above.

In my example, I have an inner section made up of 9" finished blocks. A 3 x 4 block quilt would therefore create a 27" x 36" quilt.

We already know the inside edge of the pieced border is 33" x 48" so it is a simple deduction of 33-27 and 48-36. The results need to be halved because we have border strips each side of the inner so we end up with 3" for the long sides and 6" for the short sides. Notice they are not even amounts so you may want to make up the short sides with a two 3" strips instead.

So in conclusion for this example: you would need to cut 3-1/2" border strips for the long sides and 6-1/2" strips (or two 3-1/2" strips joined together) for the short sides.

To sum up, formula for each side is: Inside edge of pieced border minus outside edge of inner sections (both without seam allowances included). Halve the result to make two strips and add seam allowances for the cutting width.

These simple calculations can create any scenario.

Still having problems figuring it out? Drop me a note below or email me with your measurements. I'm happy to help.