Not Quite a Whole Cloth Quilt

I decided to add borders to this little feathered practice piece.  I had puposefully used a large piece of batting just in case I wanted to add to this quilting motif.  Maybe the free-motion quilting tutorial for March, hosted by SewCalGal, will have to do with border quilting.  I can always hope.

First I added the side pieces for the back and the front, right sides together, with the batting in between.  Then I opened out the borders and pressed them.  After sewing on the first section, I measured carefully to be sure the stitching line for the opposite border was exactly parallel.  I then needed to be sure the top and bottom borders were perpendicular to the side borders, so I drew a stitching line and a placement line with a chalk pencil.

I placed the pins horizontally first so that I could establish where to place the back bottom border.  I used the back of the pins as a placement guide. 

The picture above shows the back strip appearing at the edge.  This extra length really made it easier to be sure the back and front lined up.  I then repinned for sewing and double checked the back.  After sewing each seam, I folded back all sections and trimmed the seam to 1/4 inch, much like paper piecing.

I'm not sure how wide I want the borders to be yet, so I've gone a little over.  I'll probably trim a couple inches off after the entire piece has been quilted.  Nice to have too much than too little.

So that's the start of my first almost whole cloth quilt.