Borders: Long May They Wave

Do you ever find yourself in a quilter's quandry?

Or maybe it isn't a quandry at all and you just fail to pay attention to what you "should" do and take the easy way out? You think: "Self: it won't matter just this one little time if you don't measure your project before adding the border. After all, the project is only 35 inches square." "The border isn't pieced, heck half of it is even straight grain of the fabric." "No problemo, dude."

WRONG.

I'm here to tell you that it doesn't pay to listen to the bad girl on your shoulder and take a shortcut. Having just added said border to a wall-hanging for my son, I can tell you that size doesn't matter. No matter the size of your top, measure it in three places (top, middle, bottom) horizontally and three places (left, middle, right) on the sides. Then you may average the three numbers for each dimension and arrive at the correct border size. You do not, I repeat do not just slap on a long piece of fabric. The time saved by not measuring will surely be spent bonding with your favorite seam ripper!