Squaring quilt top--HELP!!!!
 

I'm having trouble with squaring up a large quilt top. I don't have anywhere to lay it out and due to health reasons cannot crawl around on the floor. With smaller things, I have just folded in half and then trimmed -- much like when cutting strips when you fold the fabric and cut thru layers to get one straight strip. Because this is bigger, I would have to fold the top several times to get it to fit on my cutting mat amd even then, the weight of the rest of the fabric pulls and distorts what I am trying to cut. Does anyone have any tricks to help, or do I just do the best I can and live with a wonky quilt. It is a crazy quilt with no specific blocks so I don't have to worry about chopping off points or anything like that. I just need to get it to some semblance of straight edges. Thanks.

Ok, I will confess: I have never squared up any of my quilts. Whew, glad I finally said it out loud, I no longer have to hang my head in shame ! I square my blocks though before I sew them all together. Someone who does it the right way will come along with some good advice for you!

I lay mine out on the cutting mat and measure from a border, cut, then pull up the next section. If it's too heavy you could lay part of it on the ironing board...Diannia

I use a square ruler for the corners and a ruler along the edges. Find a seam such as the border, and put the "correct" line on it and check to see if it needs to be trimmed. Some of the edge may not need trimmed. The square ruler will show if corners are square. I square up my blocks as I make them but sometimes the quilting will make things wonky. I do this in a small area and even trim/square up king size.
Hope this helps.
D

Go to the library, church, recreation center, senior citizen's center, or other similar place where you can push two tables together to support the quilt. If you do not have a 16" x 23" or larger cutting mat, and a 12", 16", or 20" square ruler, this might be the time to think about ordering one for future use.

Jan in VA

You say that this is a large quilt top, so I'm assuming it hasn't already been quilted. I would not do any squaring until after it is quilted. I am like auntpiggylpn; I never square a top. And I seldom square my blocks, unless they're the type that are intentionally made bigger so that they can be cut down. Instead, I TRY to sew each seam accurately, and if the block starts going wonky I TRY to stop and fix it before going any further. If a block doesn't measure right, I don't use it, and I try to figure out what I did wrong so I can fix it on the next block. When I'm quilting the top (on the longarm), I TRY to keep it straight in all directions and not pull it out of alignment. When I'm done, I do check the quilt for squareness. I sometimes need to shave a little off one corner, but not usually.

I don't necessarily square up my quilts either. I am as accurate as I can be during the construction process. When i am finished, I do straighten the edges so that my binding looks straight. But, I'm a firm believer if you can't see it from a galloping horse, it doesn't exist.

Sorry, I also never square up my quilts. I do square up my blocks to make sure they are the correct size. I use my quilts of gift them to family members. I really don't care if they are perfectly square. I hate to cut off points or loose the optical integrity of my quilt. (Although, they are pretty close to being the right size each time.)

I really hope you find a method that works for you.

lol, I love the way you put that.

:mad: Just typed out a long response and then it disappeared!!!!!!!! Thanks all, for your input. Got some ideas from your input so I think I can go ahead with this project and quit obsessing about it. My DH won't care if it's square, anyways. I'll post a picture when it's finished.............and now........off to sew!