marcialb

I'm making my first ever t-shirt quilt FOR A CUSTOMER (!!!!) and it is completely screwy!! I have used woven interfacing, ironed onto the t-shirts, sashing between all of the blocks and it is still skewed when I put it on the quilt frame.

What did I do wrong? (I've got another waiting in the wings so I need to know what I did wrong before I start that one!)

Thanks!
Marcia

Tartan

Sashing all sides of the t-shirt square with cotton sashing usually helps stabilize the top. I have never loaded one on a long arm so I don't have any tips for that.

feline fanatic

Did you measure all sides of the quilt before loading on the frame to ensure it was square?

When you did the sashing, did you measure and cut each piece of sashing before sewing it on your stablized T-shirt block? Pinning and easing into place so your blocks ended up true and square?

If you just sewed the strips on and cut to fit your block after sewing, this would definitely explain how it got all screwy. Even doing traditional peiced quilting you should square up each block and measure and cut sashing pieces to ensure you keep a nice straight quilt along the way .

If you did not do any of the above you most likely have a very out of square quilt. You will have to float the top and ease in as you quilt. Or you can add borders cut length of grain. Measure your quilt top to bottom through the center. Cut your side border strips to the top to bottom measurement. Mark your border strips and quilt top sides at the half way point and at 1/4 point. Pin at those places and the ends and ease in the quilt to fit your pre cut border strips. Now repeat the whole process for your top and bottom border, measure through the center of your quilt for your new width with borders attached. This should help to square up your quilt, but you may end up with fullness in the center you will need to steam into submission as you quilt or you can pin to ease in the fullness and quilt that way but you won't be able to do a panto. You will have to work from the front of the machine.

ManiacQuilter2

I use very lightweight Pellon interfacing. Did it lay flat before you mounted it?? This was a post last week.... Read Cindi comments

http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...g-t234110.html

I think her brilliant application might be able to help you. I Hope so !! I am not a LAQ but I still enjoy reading about how you guys solve your problems. Good Luck !!

PaperPrincess

I recently had a quilt where many of the blocks AND the inner border were, shall we say generously proportioned. They really puffed up a lot. I ordered the tape measure that Cindi recommended in the above post, but before it arrived, I used a piece of twill tape (doesn't stretch) and some of those spring type hair clips and was able to keep the quilt mostly in square. The measurements on the ruler are ideal, but my substitute did work for the quilt I had on the frame.

marcialb

Thanks for your input, everyone--