Wednesday, November 17, 2010

I did it again!

I have been machine quilting for almost 20 years and I still regularly make this mistake...
I hate when that happens...now I have to rip out all the quilting and start over on that border.  I am finishing this quilt as a favour for my sister and she has a deadline for the gift, which is this weekend, so of course I make this mistake...ugh!
Is it because I leave too much fabric on the sides of the quilt? Should I trim the backing more even with the quilt top to avoid this? Any tips out there for me??

13 comments:

Susie said...

I use over 600 curved safety pins when I sandwich a quilt. I've only made 6 quilts but I've never had that happen.
Beautiful quilting.
Susie

scraphappy said...

I hate it when that happens. It seems to occur when the backing fabric is substantially bigger than the front. You might try trimming a bit before doing the border.

Mary Lou Casada said...

UGh! Kathy, so sorry!!! I hate it when that happens (and it happens to me on quilts, when I'm repairing clothes, even hand appliqueing! I eye-roll myself!) Sheesh! Is it close enough to the edge that you could just trim it and not have to take all the quilting out? True, you'd have an extra layer of fabric in that spot -- but would it be bulky enough to tell? Just a thought (and some sympathy! :-D).
Blessings!
Mary Lou

Sandie @ crazy'boutquilts said...

I like Mary Lou's idea! I used to do that all the time on my home sewing machine, then I started pinning the excess to the front to remind me it is there. That helps a bit, when you get to that spot, you can then unpin and grab onto the excess. Good luck!

Janet said...

I pin close to the edge. I also use spray adhesive and that helps. We've all done it. When you get to that last border you can trim it closer to the border, if you want to take the time to do it. It would be better than ripping.

Quilt Rat said...

I am a hand baster........I thread baste the snot out of my quilts so that everything stays exactly where I want it.........I learned the hard way as I had to unsew a few of my earlier quilts for this very reason.
and yes I baste the batting to the backing where it is all bigger than the front.
I am cyber un-picking for you right now :-O

Helen in the UK said...

Bummer!! I've had it happen and it is always on something that really matter to you or has a deadline ... the quilt knows :)

Candace said...

Been there, done that. I just keep checking and checking to try to avoid the problem, but sometimes I still catch some. It must be Murphy's law at work when you are on a deadline.

Heather said...

lots of pins and remember to smooth the backing with your hand when you get to those problem areas. A few times instead of ripping, I checked that the proper layer was smooth and then cut around the offending bits and removed it thread by thread. It was perfect underneath.

Rhonda said...

I hate to rip but pinning will help....my fingers are crossed.

Sew Create It - Jane said...

I've done this a few times...even the most seasoned quilter can make this mistake.

Margeeth said...

If you are really carefull, you can cut away te doubled fabric around the stitches and then very gently pull away the rest. You have to take care that you do not cut into the 'real' backing though. I have don that before and it worked for me.

Laurie said...

I did it ONCE, and it drove me nuts so when I was domestic machine quilting I pinned it to death and then I would do 'bare bones' quilting, interior lines, border lines, 1/8" from outside edge all done with the walking foot before I got to the free-motion quilting. After the bare bones quilting I could trim, and sometimes even bind the quilt before the free motion part.