Kassaundra

I'm not sure, but I think the "lumpy bumpy" you are talking about is b/c there is so little quilting in the square. If you added more field quilting (like meandering or echo) it would be less puffy and would make the elephants stand out.

Bree123

Here's a great tutorial from Rob Appell (Man Sewing) on basting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-SC63erclc

He is working on a mini quilt, but the idea should be the same for QAYG. As a side note: he talks about ironing the sandwich to "secure" the layers together. That generally only works if you are working with natural fibers and a hot iron. With poly batting, you cannot get the iron as hot, so there's generally not much point in ironing the sandwich (you also need to be conscious of how many times you are applying the iron to your fusible if you didn't window it; windowing -- cutting the center out and just leaving 1/2" around the edge of applique -- will allow the center to remain unfused; if you left the center in, all that heat can dry out the fusible, typically in an uneven pattern resulting in some of the fabric pulling away from the background & weakening the fabric, potentially even creating tiny bubbles or waves in the applique fabric). I would only iron the individual pieces -- and make sure if you do need to iron the poly batting due to fold lines, that you iron only on the poly setting (learned that one the hard way! ).

Note that he does NOT tape diagonally on the corners or pull at them. Taping the corners creates dog ears. Pulling the quilt any tighter than 'just barely smooth' will create puckers on the back.

Hope that helps. Happy quilting!

Bree123

She said it's not quilted yet. If anything, it's from the satin stitching. Asheryl, if you didn't use a stabilizer for the elephant, you might try doing the rest of them (if they aren't done yet) with a tear-away stabilizer like Pellon 806.

If they're already done, no worries. Pressing will help, as will the quilting.

Kassaundra

Oh I did catch that I thought she had a single "quilt" line around the applique.

asheryl

Thanks for all the tips and help. I managed to get the lumps out and the quilt is looking much better. I've actually finished doing two rows of borders but now I'm getting to some instructions that are a little confusing because the width of my material isn't as long as my next border. The instructions had me cut one extra strip of material, the width of the fabric. It's now telling me to stitch the short ends together and then I need to cut a strip that will be the length of my border but it doesn't say where the seam should fall. I use to make draperies and always seamed fabric on the edges leaving the center without any seams but do you do that in quilting?
Where should a seam fall when you're piecing material together to make one long strip?

Bree123

asheryl,
I think the problem may be that typically you would sew the sashing on to the right & left side before quilting, and then you would sew the sashing onto the "short sides" (top & bottom) of the quilt after that.

But perhaps this does things in a slightly different order. In that case, I'd sew your next block (should be an animal with a sashing strip ONLY on either the top or the bottom -- the one with the sashing on top will seam to the top of your elephant block; the one with the sashing on the bottom will seam to the bottom, so you always have your blocks surrounded by sashing on all sides when it's finished). One way some of these QAYG blocks are set-up is to make columns of quilted blocks and then to take a full length piece of sashing & sew each of the columns together with the long piece of sashing between.

Quilting typically is pieced together at intersections, not in the middle of the piece. If you need to make something work, there are two options: (1) pick whatever place visually looks okay to you -- I agree, that's usually the center although quilters have been known to create a secondary design element by irregular piecing, or (2) sew on a 45 degree angle to reduce bulk. Either way, when seaming together for the sole purpose of making the piece longer, you generally want to use a shorter stitch length (1.4-1.6") and press that seam open.

asheryl

Thanks for trying to help me. I think I'll try adding length to my strips on either end. I hate patterns that don't fully explain what needs to be done. Of course, perhaps an experienced quilter would know exactly what to do.