Here's an Easy and Fast Quilting Border

Published: Thu, 01/27/22

Hi ,

It’s time to learn how to quilt Heat Wave. This is a super fast and easy border quilting design that’s fun to quilt.

Learn How to Quilt an Easy, Fast Border Design - Heat Wave - #522

All Qnique 15 Longarms on Sale

This month (January 2022) we have a great sale on Qnique 15 longarms which include a free accessory kit with everything you need to begin ruler quilting.

Click Here to check out this month's Qnique 15 longarm sale.

Offer is only available through January 31st, 2022.

How to Turn the Corner

Heat Wave is a lot faster and easier to quilt than the Pyramids in the Sun border design from earlier this month. This design can be free hand quilted and the result is a flowy design that adds nice movement to your quilts.

I did use the Ditcher Ruler again to help me control the longarm and travel stitch between the Heat Wave shapes. With practice and patience you won’t need to grab a ruler for this straight line stitching. But I still need to!

Border Designs are tricky because you have to turn corners and keep the design consistent. Here’s a sketch of some different ideas for turning the corner with Heat Wave:

The issue with turning the corner with Heat Wave is fitting the flames together nicely. Corners add more space to the outer edge of the design, but shrink the space to the inner edge. You can end up with some really weird effects if you don’t plan ahead. It always saves time when you have a clear idea of how you’re quilting this area.

My favorite option out of all of these is the design in the upper left corner. Fill in the corner with an extra large flame shape that reaches all the way to the inner edge of the border. This fills in the extra space and with two smaller flames on the outer edge, you can get back into the flow of the design quickly.

The weirdest option is the lower right corner. Here I drew the opposite of my favorite corner with a large flame coming out of the inner edge of the border. This really didn’t work. It’s inconsistent with the rest of the design and it takes several flame shapes to get the border back on track. Basically a design train wreck!

Cornerstones are always an easy option to turn a border. Box off the corner, separate it from the border design with some straight lines and fill it with a different design. Easy Peasy!

Have these border designs inspired you? I hope you’ll give them a try in your quilts and share your pictures in our Quilt Friends Club. This is a special online group where you can share pictures, post questions, and interact with kind, creative quilters like you!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day