A Ghastlie End

--to the quilt instructions, anyway! When we left off, I had given directions up through making all the blocks and putting them together, right? So the next step is to add an inner border all around--I picked a medium tone (grayish) bramble print. This inner border is cut at 2" and finishes at 1-1/2". You can see a bit of that inner border in this photo:

Next, the corner blocks will need to be made. For these, I believe you've set aside four fussy cut squares. I think you might have even bordered them with the black fabric, but if you haven't done it yet, go ahead and do that now, just like you did with the center blocks.

After that, you'll need to add background to bring the corner blocks up to the right size, also just like you did for the blocks in the center. For my background fabric, I used the same fabric I used for the inner border.

The outer border could be problematic if you use the border print. I bought 2 yards and was able to get six rows of the print out of it. I found that the repeat was a little less than every 12". If your shop didn't cut carefully, you might not have enough to make your border as I did, but there are ways to get around that. I'll talk about solutions in a minute, but for now, let's just assume you can cut six rows, width of fabric ("WOF"). For two of those rows, cut them at the center fold and piece one onto each end of the whole WOF strip, so each border is 1-1/2 strips long--I hope that makes sense!

Measure the quilt top and your strips and trim the border strips to the same length. Sew the side borders on and press.

To the top and bottom borders, add a corner block to each end. Press those seams in the opposite direction from the side border seam so the seams will intersect nicely. Finish sewing on the last two borders. Done!

Now, some possible solutions if you aren't able to cut six rows of border fabric. First, there's the "buy more fabric" option.

Second, consider not adding a top border if you plan to use the quilt on a bed--if your pillows would cover it anyway, why worry? I've done this a couple times just to try to keep a king size quilt a manageable size!

Third, add fussy cut blocks to the centers of each border row--or larger star blocks.

Fourth, treat the border fabric as you did with the fussy cut block centers and fussy cut each section and alternate those pieces with plain fabric.

I wish I could say I'm done with the Ghastlies when it comes to my own quilt, but I'm still plugging along. Sometimes it feels like I'll NEVER finish, but I'm getting close--I just have two and a half borders left to quilt and then, of course, there's the binding.

But, I think before I get done, I'm going to need more of that green thread. Isn't that always the way it goes? Still, I'm pleased with the way it's turning out. Happy quilting!