Borderline With Personality!

I had a wild idea this week! I've never found much use for border prints, but then I thought of something and had to give it a try. 

I was really drawn to this border print designed by Anna Maria Perry. It was the perfect bohemian floral for a friend's new living room decor. I paired it with several complementing shades of solids, all cut into 2½” strips. 

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First, I cut a pile of 2½” diamonds. You can do this with all three sizes of my ruler, so no matter which one you have, it will work.  I had five different colors to use for these diamonds, so I cut three or four diamonds from each. To cut the diamonds, align the edge of the ruler along the top edge of the strip and scoot the ruler down the strip until the 2½” diamond line is inside the left selvage edge. Cut along the right side of the ruler, then rotate the cut piece and cut the other end off, aligning the fresh cut end with the 2½” diamond line. Trim both tips off flat.

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I chose one solid color for the background triangles and cut a bunch of 2½” triangles from that. To cut the triangles, align the 2½” triangle line along the bottom edge of the strip and the flat tip at the top of the strip. Cut on both sides of the ruler, then rotate the ruler 180 degrees to make the next cut. 

To cut the outer tips off flat, rotate the 2½” triangle under the ruler until it fills up the 2½” diamond lines. This will leave both outer tips exposed to be nipped off without rotating the ruler multiple times.

I ended up cutting (16) 2½” diamonds and (36) 2½” triangles.

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Arrange one diamond and two triangles as shown. Sew the right triangle onto the diamond and press that seam open. Sew the left triangle onto the diamond and press that seam open.

Make 16 pieced triangle units like this.

Arrange those pieced triangle units into two rows with eight units in each row. One triangle unit points up, and the next one points down. This creates the diamond-on-point border look.

Sew these triangle units to each other and press those seams open.

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Sew one more 2½” triangle to each end of the diamond border strip as shown. 

This diamond border strip measures about 18½” long at the narrowest point. It measures 4½” high once pieced. 

Now for the fun! I carefully cut my border print apart between each row. I purchased ⅝ yards of this fabric, enough to cut half of it into strips and use the other half for the backing.

I chose to use only the lighter border strips from this fabric in between my diamond border strips. I made sure the floral border print strips were at least 19” long. Sew these together, alternating the diamond border strips and the border print fabric.

Here you see I quilted it to really show off the diamonds. I also quilted the backing piece with a swirl texture. I trimmed both front and back to an 18” square.

To finish, sew the front and back together. If you’d like to add a zipper, follow this tutorial here.

And just like that, borders with personality came together beautifully!

Happy Sunday, everyone,

Krista

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