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Old 08-04-2020, 06:33 PM
  #16  
quiltingshorttimer
Super Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: kansas
Posts: 6,407
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I LA for others and have a couple of repeat clients that I don't even thing about cause they are so exact on their borders and quilts so very square. then I have a couple of others that are the exact opposite! Before I load I fold the quilt in 4ths--it's a quick way to check if the quilt is square. If not I'll load the wide end at the top--it's easier to quilt it that way without wavy borders being a problem, but it might look like it's lost "girth" at the bottom!. Sometimes there are problems with a border on a side and also on the bottom. I hate having to make pleats/darts on borders--I find that often the problem goes up into the quilt blocks also. If I do need to sew in a pleat I'll ladder stitch it closed. Most of the time I can soak the wavy area with spray starch, let it almost dry and then put a hot iron on it (I do this on the frame) to "shrink" it enough to quilt. You can get up to about 3" of excess out this way. the worse I've had was a border on an on-point medallion quilt--the quilt center was not square and borders on 2 sides were more than 5" off--I ended up taking all the quilting off (this was someone that I'd never had problems with their quilts before)and then taking borders off and recutting/sewing and then requilting with "piano keys" --the saving border design! Those of you that send quilts to LA and don't border to square a quilt or tame wavy borders--often an unquilted top laid on a bed or the floor looks pretty square but once on the frame can be very off--and you also may be paying a higher price cause your quilter knows your quilts have squaring issues typically and take more time.
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