It seems like it only stretches one direction. The quilt that I machine quilted did just fine until I was making the last X on it and it pulled a little. I don't know if I tugged on the quilt or had the tension too high on the pressure foot. The tied one didn't have any issues at all. And I just remembered a 3rd one I made that was machine quilted--it did not have the stretch issue either--I did stitch in a ditch on it--not X's so it may have had something to do with the diagonals.