purplemem

My mom and I made a queen size quilt. Mom decided to machine quilt it with fleece as the inner batting. Didn't work well, but she already had the center quilted when she gave up. We took it off the sewing machine and put it on a hand frame and used it to quilt by hand.

We are a group of amateur quilters. Some of the group had never even held a needle before. So, I told them to let the thread drop when they were at the end of the thread because they didn't know how to tie a knot in a thread. I was running back and forth threading needles for everyone!

Now, the back looks absolutely awful and is full of untied threads and loooooong tangles. Is there a way for me to "seal" these threads, instead of tying knots in each of them (and burying in the quilt). Mom and I are going to put a muslin back on it (to hide the nasty mess) so the "look" is not an issue.

I thought about fingernail polish on the thread ends or maybe that Fray stop type stuff. Please, I'll take any suggestions. Thanks.
MJ

auntluc

Cut the threads long enough to thread back on the needle and do a back stitch... then run the needle thru the back layer burying the thread between the quilt sandwich.

patricej

to be honest, the safest thing to ensure the threads don't come loose is the backstitch suggestion. but, if you want to take a chance, your only way to go is fabric glue.

shop carefully. look for glue that's made for fabrics. make sure it's made to NOT wash out. i'm at work, and don't remember the name, but they sell a very good one in the craft dept at walmart. it's clear and so is the bottle.

sewsewquilter

would fraycheck work? I spelled that wrong.

patricej

fraycheck will not work. nor will any of the other similar products. they are not glues. they are stiffeners.

sandpat

Oh wow..MJ...I feel for you. I think I would probably be wrinkling my nose and making that EWWWWW noise at the very least. When you put the muslin back on are you thinking of quilting it again? Would that quilting go OVER the loose threads and lock them? Oh girl....good luck..I wish I could think of a really easy fix for you.

purplemem

No, Patti, the muslin is to HIDE the awful stitching. The ladies were trying to help my mom, who had issues with it (the quilt) from the beginning...she bought the fleece so she wouldn't have to quilt it much (was trying to just quilt in the ditch or less) for the layers, then it stretched, then she couldn't move the quilt it was so heavy, then...then... it's not the quilt from hell, but it must be a third cousin or something. :lol:
No more quilting, it's just going to lay on the bed like a potato, never be washed or wallered on.

BlueChicken

What about a thin iron on product? If you use something like vlisofix (not sure on the spelling sorry) you can iron it over the whole lot. Then you can put the muslin over the top of that and know the threads aren't going to shift.

Good luck, I think I'd have given up!

:-)

auntluc

Can you post a picture of the quilt back, purplemem?
Adding another layer of fabric... even muslin will make the quilt heavier.
It would be a lot of work to take it apart and take the fleece out but it could be done if you wanted to save the quilt top. I've talked to quilters who have taken their quilt apart when they had a long arm quilter do a quilt for them and they didn't like the results....I would think it would be easier to take hand stitching out than machine stitching.

purplemem

Auntluc,
I'll have to take it off the frame, but it is a sorry, ugly mess.
I'm seriously thinking of undoing all that stitching and restitching with the turkey track stitch and the muslin back. I have Warm and Natural batting I use, doesn't take that much stitching.

I have learned so much from this process. :roll: