Pieced borders: sawtooth, flying geese and more

What a pieced border is

A plain border is one strip of fabric on each side. A pieced border is made of small units sewn into strips: triangles, geese, rectangles or squares. It frames a quilt, repeats a shape from the blocks, and can make a simple quilt look finished and planned.

Every example below goes around the same center: nine 12″ blocks, 36″ × 36″ finished.

The one rule: the units must fit

A pieced border’s units have to fill each side exactly, ending in the same place at both corners. So the unit’s finished length must divide the side’s finished length into a whole number. A 3″ unit fits a 36″ side 12 times, so it works. A 5″ unit doesn’t, because 36″ isn’t a whole number of 5″ units.

Measure with finished sizes, without seam allowances: the quilt center’s finished size, and the unit’s finished size. Then add the ¼″ seams when you cut.

Sawtooth (half-square triangles)

A row of half-square triangles, all leaning the same way, like the teeth of a saw. It’s the most common pieced border. Here each is 3″ finished: 12 along each side, 48 in all, with a plain square in each corner.

Cut 3⅞″ squares, two triangles from each, or 4″ squares to trim the units to 3½″ after sewing. Half-square triangles: what size to cut has every size.

Flying geese

Geese flying around the quilt, nose to tail. Each goose is a triangle with a small triangle of sky either side. Here each is 4″ × 2″ finished, standing across the border, so the unit along the side is 2″: 18 geese a side, 72 in all.

Sewn stitch and flip: one rectangle 4½″ × 2½″ and two 2½″ squares for each goose. See Flying geese size chart for the other methods.

Piano keys

Rectangles side by side, like the keys of a piano. It’s the easiest pieced border, and a good use for scraps or the ends of strips. Here each key is 1½″ × 4″ finished: 24 a side, cut 2″ × 4½″.

Checkerboard

Two rows of squares in alternating fabrics. Here the border is 3″ deep, so each square is 1½″ finished, cut as 2″ squares, and the pattern runs around the corners too. It’s quick to strip-piece: sew two strips together, cut them into pairs, and turn every other pair. 12 pairs fit along each side.

Corner squares

Not pieced along its length, but a plain border with a square of another fabric in each corner (sometimes called cornerstones). It’s a simple way to tie in an accent color, and the corners don’t need mitering.

The borders compared

When it doesn’t fit: a spacer border

Say you want 5″ triangles around this 36″ × 36″ quilt. They don’t fit. You have two choices:

• Change the unit to one that fits: 4½″ or 6″.
• Add a plain spacer border first, 2″ all around, so the side becomes 40″, a whole number of 5″ units.

A spacer in the background fabric also gives the pieced border room to breathe, so its points don’t crowd the blocks’ points.

Sewing a pieced border on

1. Measure the quilt top through the middle, both ways, not along the edges, which stretch. Compare it with the finished size plus ½″.

2. Make the units and sew them into strips: two for the sides, two for the top and bottom. Press each the same way.

3. Check each strip against the quilt. With dozens of seams, a strip can easily come out ½″ long or short. Fix it by letting out or taking in a few seams by a thread or two each, spread along the strip.

4. Sew the sides on first, matching the middle and the ends and pinning at every seam. Then add the corner squares to the top and bottom strips, and sew those on.

For plain borders, how to measure and cut them is in Quilt borders: how to measure and cut them.