Border Fabric Not Long Enough?

      We can finally breathe again outside. The smoke has blown away. The sky is blue. So what did I do today but spent the time indoors putting a border on a table topper. Originally, It was going to grow into a lap quilt and then someone came along and said they thought it was beautiful and would go in their kitchen. Don't you just love when that happens. This saved me a whole lot of work in figuring out how to make it bigger. Plus, they will now get the placemats that came in a kit I won from P&B Textiles. Ain't life grand!

Oh no, I preshrunk the kit fabric and now the border fabric is wide enough for the sides but, not for the top and bottom borders without adding in 1" of fabric. What a waste of a strip of fabric and very time consuming. Plus, the fabric for the back isn't wide enough for a long armer to quilt it nor long enough put it on the back of the placemats. Crapola. 

Ah ha, as the gears grind to a halt, make a partial seam border. It worked. So the moral of this story is, next time you need just a little bit of fabric strip to make a border, try sewing it on with partial seams.

   Partial seams are when you sew strips of fabric around a center instead of sewing on the two sides and then the top and bottom. The first seam is sewn from the end A to 1/2. The second seam is sewn from B to C, The third from D to E. The fourth from F to G. Then close the first seam from 1/2 to H.

   As for the back I'm going to cut the back in half lengthwise and add a 10" strip down the middle. Then use the same fabric for the back of the placemats. 

Thinking now maybe it would have been easier making it into a lap quilt.😀