how do you pick your borders

do you normally pick a fabric that is in the blocks and use it for the border

or use a fabric not in the blocks?????

I generally use one of the colors is the quilt top. If I don't have much fabric left over, I make a pieced border. Sometimes I don't use a border. It depends on the quilt.

I let the quilt speak to me. It could be leftover from the blocks or something totally different that goes. Or it may be pieced from scraps from the quilt and my scrap bin.

With my eyes closed.

No, seriously, my borders are usually picked after the top is together. Sometimes a fabric from the same line, sometimes something coordinating, sometimes a solid. It all depends on what I think works best with the top.

LOVE this video tutorial about selecting fabrics for a quilt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv6R...xJMzO&index=11

I generally use these steps as a guide.

If I have enough extra pieces from the quilt that I don't want to stash, I incorporate it into the border. Jenny has done some such borders -- making it look like a coin quilt-type border -- looks like a bunch of colorful rectangle candies all around the quilt!

If I am using a border (and I don't half the time), it will be something that is actually IN the quilt already. Otherwise it just looks like an afterthought.

I don't usually have enough yardage from fabric used in the quilt to make borders so buy separately trying to find something that goes good with the top. It is a process finding just the right thing sometimes as it involves auditioning lots of maybes, each time you do that it completely changes the look of the quilt. Yes, just another thing to drive us quilters nuts while we're in that decision phase!!!

I don't usually do borders but when I do - I completely wing it. Just start auditioning fabric and see what speaks to me. Sometimes it ends up being fabric from the quilt and sometimes not.

I go the safe route and use a color in the quilt. Sometimes it is actually one of the fabrics in the top but not always. It's more about the color for me. There is a certain aesthetic in quilt-making. Repeating colors or patterns within a quilt gives cohesiveness and is pleasing to the eye. I have also read that whatever you choose for your border determines what one sees as the color of the quilt. For example, a scrappy quilt with a variety of colors that has a green border is supposedly seen as a green quilt. I'm not sure I totally agree with that. Although, if I was making a red, white and blue quilt (for example) and I was using it in a room with lots of red in it I might add a red border to it. Does that make sense?

Thanks for posting the video. Very interesting to see how value affects the look of the quilts. This one is also good and follows the one DramaMama posted. I see there are a number of videos on this topic. I'll need to visit them all. Really helpful info. for ALL quilters.

Occasionally I will find a fabric that I pick specifically for a border and work the other fabrics around it, but most of the time, I don't pick the border until the center is done. Then I audition different fabrics to see which look I like best. It really makes a difference in the overall effect when you change colors. If you stick to a similar "style" to the rest, you can usually get away with a different fabric than what is in the block. By style I mean something like batiks, soft florals, civil war prints, 1930's, etc. It doesn't have to match perfectly, just coordinate and blend in well.