Study in Red and Brown, 56″ × 56″. Machine pieced and quilted by Joy Pelzmann.
Our trademark should be “Looks hard but is easy.” In this chapter, we offer a series of suggestions for borders, starting with the most traditional and moving to something more complex. Once your kaleidoscopes have been assembled and enhanced with coordinating fabrics and shapes, a few additions to the border will raise your quilt to the next level. Remember, too, that borders don’t always have to be the same width all around. Simply varying the width can add a spark to your design.
Some of the following techniques involve a number of steps, but each step is simple. You decide whether or not to use one technique or combine several in your quilt.
No doubt you have extra hexagons after assembling the main body of your quilt. The border is the perfect place to use them. Audition extra kaleidoscopes around the finished quilt. They not only add interest but also guide the viewer’s eye.
The border fabric should be a solid color or a fabric that reads as a solid. The border will be pieced, and a solid color will hide the seams.
Audition kaleidoscopes for border.
1. Add a strip of border fabric to the quilt first; this initial strip stabilizes the quilt. Remember that there are many bias edges in these blocks, so measure the length of the quilt through the center to find the exact measurement for the inner border. We generally use a 2½″-wide strip for the inner border, but the width is up to you.
2. At this point, the kaleidoscopes in the border are still pinned together as halves. Cut a strip of border fabric 3¾″ wide. Cut 3¾″ triangles using the Clearview Triangle ruler. Place a triangle between each half hexagon.
Add border triangles.
3. Sew the triangles to the half hexagons, creating 2 strips. Sew these strips together to create a middle border.
Sew half hexagons and triangles together.
4. If you do not want kaleidoscopes running the entire length of the border, trim the triangles, leaving ¼″ beyond the hexagon point, and simply add a solid piece of the border fabric to complete the side. Remember that the border should be 6½″ wide to match the blocks.
Trim side triangles.
Add border fabric to extend border.
By allowing kaleidoscopes or cubes to move into the border, you increase the feeling of motion within the quilt. It is almost as if the design is too lively to be contained. You need to think this through before assembling the quilt.
When a half hexagon is an “extra piece,” falling out into the border, keep it pinned until you are working on the first border strip. You are creating another vertical strip. These vertical border strips need to be cut at a 60° angle so they can be easily sewn to the half hexagon.
Adding border to half hexagon
1. If a block is hanging out of the top or bottom, your quilt assembly process will have to be changed. First sew together all strips that are not falling out of the quilt.
Sew contained strips together.
2. In these completed sections, cut off the angled edges.
Cut off angled edges.
3. Cut a strip of border fabric 3½″ wide and cut a 60° angle at one end. Attach that 60° edge to the hanging half hexagons. Do this for all the hexagons that extend into the borders. Allow enough length for the border strips to extend a bit vertically beyond the horizontal borders that will be added.
Add strips to hanging hexagons.
4. Now sew the 2 block/border strips together. Add border strips to the remaining cut edges.
Add borders to remaining cut edges.
5. The outer border can be as wide as you want it to be. Now sew the 3 sections of the quilt together and trim the excess from the hanging hexagons to match the rest of the border. Add the side borders.
Sew together and trim excess borders.
Having designed a pleasing quilt, you may still be looking for something more. You may want to consider carrying an accent triangle into the border. Though the technique looks complicated, it is, as always, really easy.
Initial design
1. Add a half hexagon of the accent fabric to the border area. Create a larger triangle that is half in and half out of the main body of the quilt by replacing the left center triangle of the adjacent half hexagon with a triangle cut from the accent fabric.
Add triangles to quilt center and border.
2. Sew the 3 border triangles together to create the half hexagon. Add a 3½″-wide strip of the border fabric, cut at a 60° angle, to each end of the half hexagon, creating a rectangle.
Add border fabric to half hexagon.
3. Suspending a triangle in the border is also easy and effective. Attach a strip of border fabric to each side of the accent triangle in sequence, extending the border much further than you think you will need.
Add first border strip.
Add second border strip.
Add third border strip.
4. Then trim the unit into a square.
Either or both of these triangle options can be incorporated into the border. Enlarge the square or rectangle with additional border fabric as needed to equal the width of your border.
Sometimes you will find that your initial design demands something other than straight borders. A banner border is a variation that works well with the hexagon blocks and triangle units.
Initial design
1. Remove half hexagons from the side edges.
Remove half hexagons from sides.
2. Add a hexagon to the bottom where you wish to create the lowest point of the banner. Again, the number of points is a personal decision; sometimes one point is enough, and other times you may want more.
Begin banner point.
3. Add extra half hexagons to fill in the point of the banner.
Add half hexagons.
4. Split these into 2 parts to allow easy assembly of vertical strips.
Split half hexagons.
5. Make adjustments to the rest of the half hexagons along the lower edge to create the angled line of your banner.
Adjust half hexagons to complete banner.
6. Sew the vertical strips together to the point of the banner, creating 2 halves.
Sew strips together.
7. The outside border will be added to each side of the banner and then mitered at the center. Begin by adding border fabric to both sides of the quilt and allow enough additional length (equivalent to the width of the border) at the bottom so you can miter the corner.
Add side borders.
8. Add the bottom border to the banner halves. Again, allow enough extra length on the outer sides. The center point of the banner is a 120° angle, which is two 60° angles. Cut one edge of each section of the bottom border into a 60° angle. Attach the bottom border to each section, allowing additional length to miter the outside edges where they meet the sides.
Add bottom borders; cut center ends at 60°.
9. Miter the outer corners and sew the 2 halves of the quilt together. Trim the top to a straight edge and attach the top border. Miter the corners and you are finished.
Complete the quilt top.
Three's Company, 42½″ × 42″. Machine pieced and quilted by Joy Pelzmann.
Midnight in the Garden of Eden, 66″ × 59″. Machine pieced and quilted by Maxine Rosenthal.
One Whack Over the Line Sweet Mary, 41″ × 50″. Machine pieced and quilted by Maxine Rosenthal.
Encroachment, 68″ × 62″. Machine pieced and quilted by Maxine Rosenthal.
Hexagon Paradise, 58″ × 64″. Machine pieced and quilted by Debbie Manlove. Debbie says, “I loved making this quilt, from purchasing the fabric to putting on the binding. With help from my digital camera, the computer, and my friends, I got the color wash I wanted.”
Fire and Ice, 44″ × 53″. Machine pieced and quilted by Joy Pelzmann.
Wisterious, 71½″ × 54″. Machine pieced by Elizabeth Vikla of Blue Bamboo. Quilted by Theresa Francisco. Elizabeth says, “I had sworn that I would never quilt, but I had to take those words back when I saw Maxine’s first book, One-Block Wonders. Her simple technique made the process fun and easy to learn. Most people who see it can’t believe that it’s a first quilt”
Aurora Australis, 42″ × 75″. Machine pieced and quilted by Maxine Rosenthal.
