Braided border tutorial

I was asked by one of my readers for a pattern for the braided border I had put in on of my African Fabric quilts.

I told my reader I would go ahead and write a tutorial on it because I didn't have a pattern, so here we go!

For the quilt shown I cut 1 1/4" wide strips of black Kona and the adjoining fabric was cut at 2 1/2". You can use any width of fabric you want. The possibilities are endless.

Sew the strips together. I pressed the seam to the narrower piece.

Next I cut the stripes into pieces that were 7" long for the African fabric quilt. For my demo piece I cut them at 6". I will get to how that changed the border width later on. After I cut the 6" pieces I had a little piece left over that I used as my starter piece. You can see in this picture out I laid out the first two pieces for sewing.

Here they are sewn together and pressed.

Here is the next piece lined up and ready to sew.

Press and then line up the next piece. Yes, I press each piece after it is sewn.

Continue adding pieces lining them up at the center. Don't worry about the outside edges as you will need to trim the entire piece once it is long enough for what your are making it for.

To trim I place the ruler along one side first, cutting off only what I have to. Then I cut the other long side, then square up the ends. You can see you lose some length at the ends so you have to make sure you make the border long enough. It is a bit deceptive!

Using 6" pieces gave me a 6 1/4" wide border.

For the African fabric quilt, I used 7" pieces which gave me a 6 3/4" wide border. Here are close up shots of what the ends look like.

Here is what the back of my demo piece looks like.

Let me know if you have any questions! This is a high impact border that is easy and quick to make!