The Final Stitch: Making Quilts Bigger with Borders with Natalie & Liz - Video Tutorial

We're talking about how to make your quilt bigger with borders. Liz comes out from behind the camera and brings a quilt with all kinds of borders as Natalie shares tips, good ideas to get you started, and reminders to help you grow your quilt with borders to the size you'd love it to be. Remember: There are no rules!
Find out more about this episode of The Final Stitch here: bit.ly/FinalStitchS02E02_yt
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00:00 Introduction
00:17 How to Make My Quilt Bigger with Borders
01:47 Tip: Border Size
02:31 Tip: A Place to Rest
03:15 Example: A Small Panel to a Giant Quilt
04:20 Tip: Let the Fabric Show Where to Cut
04:56 Mitered Borders
05:43 Straight Line Borders & Directional Prints
06:52 Different Fabrics in Your Borders
07:28 Mixing It Up Gives Your Eyes a Rest
07:51 How Big Can I Go?
08:24 Main Rule: Doubling Your Border
08:53 Conclusion
-- About Missouri Star --
@Missouri Star Quilt Company provides free quick and easy sewing, quilting, and craft tutorials because we love to create. We offer these free online quilting classes to teach and inspire everyone-even the beginner. Precut fabric is used in most of our projects, and we have lots of tips and tricks to make quilting fast and simple.
Missouri Star Quilt Company provides totally FREE quick and easy quilting, sewing, and craft tutorials every single week because we love to help you create! Follow along with these fun online classes to learn more about quilt design and quilting techniques. It’s an inspiration for everyone-from beginners to advanced quilters. To make quilting easier than ever before, precut fabrics are used as the building blocks of most projects. These quilt fabrics like layer cakes, charm packs, and jelly rolls make textile patchwork as easy as pie! Plus, we offer quilt patterns and quilting supplies along with gorgeous quilt material to simplify your experience. We hope you enjoy our quilting tutorials. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a single one!
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[@debl-s5677]

The glimpses of the back are tantalizing❣ Please, please, please have a lesson or two on pieced backings❣❣

[@debsta816]

Cont. than the palm of my hand. Ladies were making quilts from double knits, and, gasp, tied them together with yarn. Other ladies called those ugly, or worse, Utility quilts. Not everyone can afford quilt shop quality fabrics. Personally, well, no one cares what I think, but I never get tired of looking at quilts and marveling at the imagination, resourcefulness and love that has been put into them. Liz, I admire your Christmas quilt. I’d never have thought of making a medallion quilt basically starting with a comparatively tiny center. Your quilt is striking. I, too, was hoping to see the back. Bet it’s beautiful, too! Natalie, I really look forward to The Final Stitch. I learn something every time I watch. Please keep your high quality, encouraging, knowledgeable shows coming. I confess that I stay up late on Thursday night to get the jump on others to watch Jenny’s tutorials, but I also watch for your offerings as soon as I see one has been posted. I’m a fan, and hoping to get to Hamilton to see the empire your family has built and, just maybe, take some classes. 😃😄😀

[@CarolCurler]

Natalie, you are delightful! I am sure your parents are proud of how you have inherited the passion and purpose of Missouri Star Quilt Co. And we, the consumers, are grateful.

[@elmgroveagtolar]

Was hoping you would show the back! Good to see the face that goes with the voice we hear on videos, Liz.

[@patfrontuto5342]

This is a stunning quilt! Great job!!!

[@suehorn4182]

Natalie you are becoming so calm in front of the camera ❤️

[@madonnaabbott7231]

Natalie , your tutorials are appreciated.

[@lynnlegault4042]

I love Natalie and Liz have such calm voices

[@debbiebrewington7635]

Oh thank you MSQ and ladies. I’m currently working on a quilt for my son. It’s not going to be near large enough for his taste. I was searching on YT for border ideas and came across this video. I see it’s ok to mix fabric, design and lines. The quilt you are showing has pulled so many beautiful colors yet you never lose the integrity of the quilt. Thank you so much for sharing all the information. 😊😟

[@kimramirez3725]

Thank You for sharing Your quilt Liz. It is Beautiful. I have several panels that I want to grow into big bed size quilts so it is always fun to see creative ways to do that. I am also the kind of maker that has to do all of my mitered borders at the same time to get them to look right. Maybe because I just don't make them often enough so I forget (& by the time I get to that part I am just so eager to get the quilt finished I get in a hurry. What can I say, I get excited about anything quilting, fabric... very easily :) Natalie I love that You are teaching the additional steps that go into making a quilt with The Final Stitch. You are an awesome teacher & very generous to share Your creativity with all of us. Thank You & God Bless...

[@michaelbergstrom2721]

Luv listening to Liz. Her voice is very mellow and comforting.

[@vickipurcell3864]

Natalie, thank you for such a great blog on borders! When you look and smile at me through the camera, it’s like your talking to me and I like that! I love you approach to quilting!

[@shirleymowrey9940]

This is exactly the answer to the question I didn't even need to ask. My sister told me MSQC would have all my answers if I just looked. You are the best!!!!!! Thank You LIZ.

[@catherinec7509]

Liz, that was a wonderful way to use a panel you love and make it your own. I absolutely love your approach and never thought of doing this the way you did. Using different borders on the sides and top never occurred to me. You rock!

[@jjudy5869]

When I was learning to quilt, the ladies of the quilting group advised me to use a multiple of the size of the block, i.e. the multiples of a 12" block are 1,2,3,4,6,12. This has always worked for me, as a starting point for adding borders of different sizes.

[@skiptonius5346]

Factors are the numbers that can be multiplied together to get that number. The factors of 12 are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12. Multiples of 12 would be 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, etc

[@BLDGLNPAL]

Wish we could have seen the back of Liz's quilt. It looks very interesting! Wonderful video, as usual.

[@shelleyriley9130]

This was great, ladies. I'm a new quilter and just bought my first panel print that I want to turn into a large throw and this helped tremendously. What seems so easy in your mind turns into a "now what do I do" when you get it home. I've seen other, more creative and unusual borders on Pinterest and would love to see you demonstrate how to do those as well. Every little tip is so helpful. Thank you so much!

[@janicecroft2304]

Loved seeing Liz and her quilt. The little glimpse of the back looked, like that was pieced also. A great Christmasy quilt that can stay on all winter.

[@jessicantorres]

This is genius! I love how it stared off with a panel. Beautiful quilt

[@rebeccamulkern1051]

I love the missouri star in the background created by quilting rulers, so clever!

[@susanc8898]

Thank you so much for giving me “permission” to play with the sizes and mix patterns in the border! I have a couple of orphan blocks that are very large but so pretty. I have plenty coordinating fabric to enlarge them into usable quilts with this great idea. You ladies are the greatest!

[@dianeholiday6844]

Perfect timing! My daughter and I just finished the main body of a quilt (started 3 yrs ago) and it is not big enough for her queen size bed. I was frustrated as to what to do now. I do not have fabric from the body left over large enough to make a wide boarder...this was a great object lesson that we can go back to the fabric store and incorporate different fabrics into the boarder. Thanks Liz, your quilt is gorgeous. Thanks Natalie, I love your segments as well as Triple play.

[@anitamorrison4992]

Oh my goodness, what a beautiful quilt. Definitely gives a lot of food for thought. I would never have thought about doing something like that. It is beautiful!!!

[@kimsue5019]

Extra top and bottom borders are also great for quilts that are used in recliners. My stepfather was tall and use his quilt in the evening while watching TV and said it was too short to cover him from shoulders to feet and he wished I had made it longer.

[@joannpenka9201]

Liz, it is great to see you in front of the camera instead of always behind! Thanks Natalie and Liz! Beautiful quilt.❤️

[@MUM2Erlangen]

Thank you for this episode. It was really helpful. I am a beginner and working my way through my fabric stash. Sometimes I get the information before I need it and sometimes it is late but I learn from it. Great to see gorgeous Liz with the beautiful voice in front of the camera with you. Please do more and show us the back next time. I could only see a glimpse of it. Have a good day. Greetings from Germany.

[@eshellebennett]

love your quilt Liz. it really gave a full example of how to add borders of different sizes to grow a quilt. Natalie, love you to pieces, can you please do a video on mitered borders. I know in my mind how but it does not translate into my hands for some reason.

[@madonnaabbott7231]

Mitered borders would indeed be an episode not to miss.

[@donnakimball3822]

I love the king size quilt. Thank you for remembering that some of us are tall. And I love to wrap my feet around my quilt.

[@peggyford8120]

My very first bed quilt was created with a panel. Several of my borders consisted of different blocks between other border strips. It turned into a king size by the time I added my last border. Gave it to my son & daughter-in-law as a wedding gift and they keep it displayed on their guest bed.

[@debsta816]

Liz and Natalie I really like what you are creating here. There are few enough channels that talk about the actual stumbling bumps and mysterious should and should nots in quilting. I appreciate your approach, Natalie, that there might be things that were once considered the”right” way to make a quilt, and the rest were not worthy methods of producing a beautiful quilt. Not everyone aspires to make that blue ribbon quilt. Not every quilt needs to be hand quilted with 10-12 stitches per inch. When I first started quilting in 1982 (there, I said it) we didn’t have nearly the fabulous selection of high quality fabrics we have now. Mostly there were grey blues, burgundy, tan, olive drab and white/muslin. Very few prints were larger tha

[@crystalbrenneman9314]

Great vid...informative and to the point without unecessary chitchat and interruptions. Panels that we once thought were limiting, are now shown to be unlimited in creativity. Liz, beautiful quilt! Thanks,natalie!

[@Michelle_Myers]

The peak of the back looked interesting too. Love the quilt Liz!!!

[@Nlarx950]

Thank you Natalie and Liz for a nice start to my quilting day! Liz's quilt is beautiful and unique with her use of borders. I'm a big fan of multiple borders.

[@cherylhoward8608]

I LOVE the Final Stitch!!!! Thank you so much Natalie and Liz!!!!

[@omisfavorites1054]

Hi Liz! And Natalie! Nice to see you both😉

[@traceyshoun1005]

Absoltely loving your videos Natalie. You are so authentic. Keep it up.

[@lynneschultz316]

Your borders are like a quilt! Like a quilt on steroids! Very brave and the result is phenomenal! 💕

[@happybuela]

Love this, as always, appreciate all that you teach us, Natalie! Thanks for overcoming your shyness Liz, so good to see in front of the camera!

[@lauriefortier3743]

Gorgeous quilt, Liz! Great to see you two gals together! ❤️❤️

[@carolynpoley8565]

I Love your quilt Liz, and your butterfly earrings. Just Beautiful!

[@kaylac3367]

That is a beautiful quilt!!! I've not seen one done like that. Great creativity. I can see smidges of the back as yall are holding it. Looks like it might be just as interesting. Please show it

[@hazelem1266]

I love that quilt at 3.59. I am hand sewing my large quilt and I have already put a 1.5” border as a frame. Then I wanted to do three different borders of the same width and have the same narrow strip in between but I thought it would look funny. I love how your narrow strip framed each border so I will go with what I planned. My actual centre is different sized blocks made of my son’s hoodies.

[@anga3659]

Thank you for this video. I was just wondering about panel quilts as well as square quilts. Quite frequently, I will look at the dimensions of a quilt and say.. Oh it's too small or its square, so I disregard the pattern because I'm not thinking about increasing the size of the quilt. Especially when needing to add length now that my grandkids are getting older. Hooray for me... I now have more tools in the belt to make more quilts. Thanks ladies for helping me out today with this video. As a suggestion, please have Jenny do a tutorial about adding borders to make your quilts larger. I'd love to see it. Liz, your quilt is beautiful. Thank you for sharing it.. Natalie I love your Create Better Bindings Class. My bindings have never looked so good. Thanks again ladies. 😀

[@jean8703]

Wow! Great quilt! Wonderful options! Thanks Liz and Natalie. -Jean ❤

[@madonnaabbott7231]

The glimpses of the back definitely was a tease. It is a beautiful quilt, =) Maybe in the next "Final Stitch" you can take a few min to show the back. That's a quilt to keep , Liz, very well done. I was planning to make a quilt with quite a few cat fabric pieces I have as left overs. The borders are very encouraging for making my next quilt more grand in size , and eye appealing.

[@charleneeisnerschulten7534]

Yes this was so expiring to me cause you take a panel and just start building boarders around the panel and there’s no limit or rules, the sky is the limit!!! Just loved this tutorial and what a beautiful quilt that was shown in this tutorial!!! This tutorial makes me feel more comfortable and to be not afraid to try and experience with different patterns of fabrics and with different colors as well!! Thank you girls!! I always love the creative ways of quilting!! Happy Quilting! ♥️😊

[@georgecindyaustria4995]

Would love to see the back of the quilt! The glimpse I got looked totally fascinating!

[@sorayavalle8327]

Love your butterfly earrings! OMG!!! that's a lot of borders. I can barely keep two of my borders flat. Amazing!!!

[@beckymatthews3496]

What a nice surprise to have a face to go with the “voice” 😀 Beautiful quilt and thank you for the great info about boarders. I added one to my first quilt but made it too wide for the print/block patterns. Lesson learned and I will have the 3/4th of the block size in my mind for next time as the starting point!!!

[@livingweirdestherc6644]

That is a gorgeous quilt. Nice to see you Liz. 😀

[@debthill8285]

Wish you would’ve showed the back of the quilt

[@tracyeckhardt6817]

I like how you put a stop border between borders

[@omisfavorites1054]

Liz’s quilt is amazing! I’m definitely going to make something like it. Would love to have seen the back.

[@ironrose888]

I love quilt panels and adding borders. Thank you for sharing ideas and suggestions.

[@sandrahoward9427]

What a beautiful quilt, it has inspired me to be braver with my borders. I would have liked to see the back. It was also nice to see Liz in front of the camera.

[@jojeffrie962]

Really lovely quilt thankyou for sharing. I have always done this with all my quilts, I like to wing it as they say. I thought everyone did this to alter the sizes of their quilts.... obviously not. So great idea to help others have food for thought. Truly lovely quilt.

[@rebeccaturner3906]

I would have loved seeing this quilt on your bed! (I agree with others...nice to “see” the voice we hear all the time!)

[@tracyruth4247]

What a beautiful quilt! It looks like the back might be just as beautiful ❤

[@ericanater8641]

What a beautiful quilt.

[@sueschultz1770]

The back looked interesting. Would love to see what Liz did there.

[@peggyreinhold886]

These bigger borders are always a good option to make a quilttop wider. I also used inner borders to give the top the right size to add a Seminole (patched) border, that means the top and boddem stripes were a bit wider than the side stripes. Liz quilt is beautiful and I would liked you showed the back, too. The quilttop also reminded me on Row by Row's you can make with your PW group etc. Thank's for a great video. Greetings from Germany 🙋‍♀️

[@julxie-quitting6741]

Love The Final Stitch! Thanks.

[@sherrizelinawagner390]

Thank you. I’ve recently discovered panels and am not sure what to do. This was a great help! Now I can make quilts vs wall hangings!

[@suebennett3715]

You read my mind I was wondering how to make a panel into full size quilt yesterday. Thanks a million!

[@CoffeeJo]

This is gorgeous, Liz! Now, I just need Kaffe Fassett to make a panel. 😁

[@chrislittebrant5235]

Thank you Natalie and Liz, Your quilt is amazing Liz ❤️🥰 Have a wonderful week! Chris-Raleigh NC

[@reginacurry1522]

Beautiful quilt! Love all the patterns you put together.

[@gaylenewilkey9739]

On a recent MS with Jenny, Misty and Natalie, Natalie said there are 3 different ways of paper piecing, it would be great for the Final Stitch to talk about the 3 ways and why they are different.

[@TheLadymolly]

Hi Liz, wonderful to see the face behind the camera. I would love to see tutorials on mitered corners.

[@kayedillaway5455]

Loved the quilt with various types of extending borders! And great to see Liz! 👋 Could you also do a video to show how to figure out adding repeating blocks or pre-cuts to make different size quilts?

[@Karen-Not-That-Karen]

Great video Natalie and Liz!

[@S.Kay.Steffy]

Beautiful quilt! And it was nice seeing Liz in front of the camera😊

[@gwenmadeline54]

Thank you Natalie. I am just making a quilt from scraps from last year. It is colorful solids and after adding white trim to all the squares the top came out square and smaller than I wanted. I added a large, bright yellow border on the top and bottom. Then the same border on the side which is half the width Now my quilt is rectangular as I want it, but still too short. After watching this I will think about how to make a spot for my eyes to rest and be careful not t make it too big. I also intend to do a flange border as you showed before.

[@marlahanks7278]

HAHA Natalie-place for the eye to rest then have a little party!!! Liz-beautiful quilt :)

[@AfreensCreations]

Thanks for sharing

[@monabenson8607]

I was so glad to hear you say to remember the quilt will grow by adding borders. You said to remember by adding the border it doubles by adding the amount to each side. . I wanted my cute camper pillow top to be 16 inches and it turner out 20 inches. I'd hate to admit the time it took to figure how my pillow top got too big.

[@debbiehampton7524]

Thank you for this tutorial. Very helpful. I audition mine by folding the fabric the width I am thinking of.

[@stephaniemize321]

As a beginner quilter I found this video so helpful. I had always wondered if you could make a quilt larger adding more borders.

[@susiescalia2469]

Do you ever hand quilt any of your beautiful projects? Can you talk about techniques and tips, possibly different threads we can use? I like the look of hand quilting but I'm looking for different thread ideas. Thanks for the great series, I'm learning so much!

[@JanetLicariQuilts]

I like the red binding as well as the quilt...beautiful job.

[@cynthiajones1461]

That is a beautiful quilt and so well planned out, too.

[@sharonshergold2372]

Thanks for the ideas.. I currently have two small pieces that should be wall hangings, but I don’t have anywhere to put them. I was thinking of trying to make them bigger and now feel comfortable enough to try to make them lap size throws..

[@SheilaRose]

Great video. I'm sooo happy to see multi-borders are ok... good, great. 💕

[@marygeorge9688]

Love this. Thank you for sharing your talents with us!

[@pattysherwood7091]

This was great, and very inspirational. I have a square quilt top of greens and cream that I could keep small but I’m thinking to have fun with some borders.Thank you for the advice. PS. I kept my quilt small and I love it. But I saw in a very old magazine something called a medallion quilt. It starts with a central square and is surrounded by additions like multiple borders like your nice big quilt. They had pieced borders and appliqué in these additions.

[@gigilewis1079]

love to add borders to compliment as well as enlarge!

[@vickiheath6133]

This was really awesome. I have several panels I would like to do this with.

[@peggymalaski4061]

Thank you!!! I asked about the borders a week ago during a Tuesday live! Glad you showed off this quilt!

[@debbiebrown3053]

Thankyou!!!!!! I’m a newbie and I need to make my quilt bigger that I am working on right now!👏👍

[@robertacaruthers7568]

It's nice to be reminded that it's OK to give our creativity permission.

[@katywuste9054]

Great video and Natalie needs her own show, she’s an amazing 🧑‍🏫 teacher. The quilt is gorgeous. Thanks

[@nellsgirl]

Beautiful quilt!! ❤️

[@indyphoto1]

Liz, that Christmas quilt is GORGEOUS!!!!!

[@lucindanunez2566]

Was beating myself up trying to figure out how to enlarge a guilt while still making it eye pleasing. BOARDERS !!! thank you girls!

[@robertaarrowsmith2860]

Very pretty. Very creative. 😍

[@lorettaclinton6604]

Very timely video for me as I’m trying to figure out borders on a quilt top given to me by a friend. I will be donating it to my guilds charity.

[@gwenmadeline54]

NIC units are great places to donate little quilts. Those tiny babies and worried parents are so appreciative.

[@rhondawaldron]

Very Beautiful and so unique

[@tracyeckhardt6817]

Your pieced backing looks amazing too

[@julygirl6374]

Beautiful quilt

[@northcoastmom8781]

What would you say about a quilt that needs larger borders on the sides (to fit a CA King) but not on top and bottom. Adding same size to top & bottom would make it too cumbersome on a sleigh bed.

[@carmeltaylor8075]

Love your quilt. Love your videos & I learned so much from you.

[@annaziff]

Love this team!! Thanks for an informative and helpful video.

[@heidicook2395]

Thank you for this wonderful idea on how to expand a quilt to a size I want it to be.