If you’ve ever used the Auto Borders tool, you may have noticed two styles called Single Block Patterns 1-6 and 7-12 and wondered what those were for. Today I’ll show you one scenario when those borders will come in handy.

I’ve designed this mini quilt. It’s made up of one central block and has two borders (I add a narrow border around most of my quilts to mimic the look of binding).

The first border has these settings on the Borders tab:

I like this design and I’m ready to make the quilt. I want to foundation piece each side of the border as one strip. But when I click on the border to select it for printing, I see that each triangle is a separate block:

So when I print the pattern, each triangle is an individual block:

So how do I make it print the whole side of the border as one foundation piecing unit? I could draw the border myself on the Block Worktable by setting up a block the size of the border strip and manually drawing each triangle. But there’s an easier way! The Auto Borders tool has borders pre-designed for this purpose, so I’m going to replace the current border with an Auto Border.

Here are the steps:

  1. Click the Set Auto Borders tool . (If it’s not on the toolbar, right-click on the toolbar and choose Add/Remove Buttons. Click to put a check next to Set Auto Borders.)
  2. In the palette, under Select a Style, choose Single Block Pattern 1-6.
  3. My current Points Out border has six points, so scroll to the right to find the border called 6 Points Out (hover your mouse over a border to make the name appear).
  4. Click on the border on the quilt, and it will be replaced with the new Auto Border.
  5. Use the Paintbrush or Spraycan tools to re-color the border.
  6. Looks the same as the original border, right? But here’s where the big (important!) difference comes in– click the Select tool and then click on one of the borders.
  7. See how the entire border strip is now selected, instead of just one triangle? Now let’s see what the foundation pattern looks like:

    One foundation piecing unit with all the triangles! I’ll have to tape a couple pieces of paper together, but that just comes with the territory of using patterns larger than standard printer paper. Now I can start sewing my border strips for this mini quilt!

We are here to help! If you have questions about this, or anything else please contact tech support.