Thank you everyone, for your further comments and suggestions, I'm learning tons again through this.
I've had a friend visiting, so it's only now I'm getting to update (in fact she's still here but not awake yet :D ). My starch is taking forever to arrive, so I tried taping my bubbly top taut and flat to my "design floor" :mrgreen: , sprinkled it heavily with water and left it overnight to dry. And voilą.... MUCH better than before. I still have a few hexes that bubble a bit and the borders have hints of waves - but it looks a lot more manageable to me now.
Originally Posted by omak
I was thinking about you this morning, and remembered you mentioned machine quilting ... FMQ, I assume <g> anyway, if you get all the layers basted/pinned together, the quilt is good to go, and if I were working with your quilt as you have described it, I would definitely start in the middle, just to ease the fullness away from that area ...
if your quilt is laying on a flat surface, can you put your hand down and almost contain all the bubble in one, relatively small area? Then, you might consider in JUST that area, doing some following the seam lines before you go into flowing lines, working out from the middle ... sort of a fine line - - have to at least anchor the bubble down, but you don't want to flatten it out so much that the bubble GROWS as it moves away from the area ...
the more space between your quilting lines, the more likely that the fabric will "level" out following the washing and drying event.
Hope I haven't confused you <wave>
Omak this makes superb sense to me, thank you! I'll definitely follow your suggestions when I sandwich and quilt this. The center is going to get large meanders anyway, and I'll do the same on the borders and depending how flat the areas look, I might fill them in more with smaller meanders or leave them. Cool.
Originally Posted by amma
My top has a few puffed hex's, but not many. I don't think it is due to my sewing skills LOL but because I starched my fabric stiff, and it was stored on my design wall (and still is :roll:) I agree with omak, folding/handling will continually cause stretchomg of those edges.
I think if you use a little loftier batting, or maybe two layers under the "poofy" places, it will help to fill out those areas less noticeably.
I love your cheetah quilt!!! And the sampler is gorgeous, it still has the underwater look to it and I think it would make a stunning quilt!!! :D:D:D
Thank you Amma, glad you like them!!! :D:D:D
And thanks so much for suggesting puffier batting, I love using that anyway. Might not have dared put it into this one because of the bubbliness... seems the opposite it true! lol
Happy Holiday!!!