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 Free Pattern : A Piano Keys Border

Adding a pieced border to your quilt will make a wonderful finishing touch. Here's a great border called "Piano Keys" that is terrific on a scrap quilt. The block looks like this:

Note that this block is not square ... it could be if you made the keys a bit wider, but I like this proportion.

How big do I make it?

Make this block any size you see fit. Be sure to assign a size to each patch of the block. Imagine a 5x6 grid over the block. If you assign 2" (finished) to each patch, the block would be 10x12 " finished. If you assign 1" (finished) to each patch, the block would be 5x6" finished.

Your border should be in scale with your quilt ... if your quilt center is delicate, you wouldn't want an overwhelmingly big block in the border. Unless you are planning your quilt in advance on the computer or on graph paper, you might want to wait and "audition" a border when your quilt center is done.

How do I create this border?

Quilters use a 1/4" seam allowance. As a result, you will need to add 1/2" to the finished measurement when cutting. Say each unit of our border block will be 1" finished... the block will be 5x6" finished. We'll start by cutting a 1-1/2" strip of black for every 4-1/2" strip of color in your block.

Seam the strips of black to the strips of color, and then cut crosswise into 1-1/2" x 5-1/2" units. (We're only showing the first strip set here; you need to make one strip set for each color in your border.)

When you have all your strips sets stitched and cut, start assembling your blocks. Note that depending on the lengths of the sides of your quilts, you may need to adjust the sizes of the end blocks by leaving off one or more of the colors. I like to set plain blocks in the corners with this border.

Stars with Piano Key Border and Cornerstones

Related : More Free Border Patterns

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