Round the Mountain Mini Quilt Mystery, Clue Five: Adding the First Border

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Creating the Borders

Press both border units in half to mark the center.  Sew the border unit with the QST to the three-part border, taking care to match the centers of each border. Press to the three-strip-set. Make (4.) These new borders should measure 6-1/2″ x 16-1/2″.

Sew one of the borders to each side of your 16-patch block, positioning the three-strip-set section to the inside. Keep matching centers. Forcing a quilt top to match two identically cut borders will force it to lie flat. Your new center will measure 28-1/2″ x 16-1/2″.

Sew a 6-1/2″ square nine-HST block to both sides of the two remaining borders. Make sure to position the accent pinwheel next to the accent strip as shown below. Because of the way you have pressed the block seams, they should just nestle at the intersections.  Use pins to encourage this behavior.  It will help keep everything straight.

These will be your top and bottom borders. They should measure 6-1/2″ x 28-1/2″. Make (2.)

Sew the borders you just created to the top and bottom of the quilt top as shown.  Keep matching the centers.  Press.

This is the top so far. It should measure 28-1/2″ x 28-1/2″. I admit I thought it was pretty ugly at this stage and I did not like it at all.  Fortunately, that was about to change.