Borders & Sashing

This year my 4-H Quilt Club is making sampler quilts with the goal of showing their quilts at the Sarpy County Fair in August. At each monthly meeting from January through April, I shared three 12-1/2" (12" finished) quilt blocks that focused on squares and strips. At our May meeting, we will start sewing our blocks together into quilt tops. A great way to highlight each quilt block is by adding sashing. Sashing and borders are also a great way of making the quilt larger.

One option is to sew the twelve 12" (finished) quilt blocks together in 4 rows with 3 block per row. The completed quilt top will measure 36" by 48". This is a great size for a crib or toddler quilt.

A simple way to make the quilt a little bigger and add in a coordinating or contrasting fabric/color is to add a border to the quilt top. By adding a 4-1/2" border will make the quilt 44" x 56" which is a nice size lap or throw quilt. If you want to add a 4-1/2" (4" finished) border, you will need 5/8 yard of border fabric.

Depending on the fabrics used for the quilt blocks, the quilt top can be pretty busy when the blocks are sewn together! You can add strips of fabric between each of the blocks. This is called sashing. If you add 2-1/2" (2" finished) sashing strips to your quilt, it will be 40" x 54". If you want to add 2-1/2" (2" finished) sashing to your quilt, you will need 1 yard of your sashing fabric.  

Another option is to add sashing and a border. With 2" finished sashing and a 4" finished border, your quilt will be 48" x 62". If you want a quilt with both sashing and a border, you will need 1-1/4 yard of additional fabric.

To complete the quilt, you will also need backing and binding fabric. The amount needed will depend on the size of your completed quilt top. We will discuss this more at our May meeting.