Crazy quilt top stretched (a lot), please help!
 

Hello

i am almost finished a wedding quilt for my very best friend. However, I have come to baste the 2nd half and there is a lot of stretch resulting in a lot of baggyness. In some cases there is 4 inches extra fabric. The extra fabric has appeared towards the edge of the quilt, but not close enough for me to chop it off. I cannot redo it, I don’t have time, plus it would be soul destroying to undo all the hard work. Any ideas how I can remedy this without having to unpick. I’ve thought about creating a dart to hide the extra fabric and covering it up with some appliqué hearts. Just wondering if there are tricks of the trade anyone could share to help me out this dilemma. I’ll try post photos to help you understand just how big my problem is :)

I am not entirely clear on what you need to fix, but if a dart works I say go for it! My brief experience with crazy quilting always used a firmly-woven backing to stabilize all. Hope you can fix it.

If it is a crazy quilt where the fabric pieces are put together at odd angles and of odd sizes, then taking up the excess fabric by adding a dart might just look like a design feature.

did you baste from the center to the edges?

did the top lay flat before you started layering it with te backing and batting?

can/will you post pictures of the whole quilt? if we see more of it, we might get a better idea of what is happening.

when i have layered quilts, i have noticed some creeping. so - i have learned to start from the center to the edges or to start at one side and keep on going to the other side.

when starting at opppsite ends, i usually ended up with a pleat or bulge in the middle.



i

It is hard to see the problem in the pictures. Is the extra fabric along the borders? Can you post a picture of the quit while it is flat?

I would take the time to open the border seams and fix the issue. Trim off the excess fabric and seam them again. It could probably be done without removing the whole length of border.

Good luck!

This video might give you some ideas. The quilter does an amazing job quilting in some huge fullness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Md...&feature=share

[ATTACH=CONFIG]602234[/ATTACH]
hi, here is a pic of the full quilt top. The quilt doesn’t have a border on it, the pucker is in the strips itself. Hope the attached pics helps to explain :)

At first I thought your issue is as Tartan described and to a certain extent that is what caused it but it is the nature of the pattern so I don't see how you could have avoided it as you were working on it with so much bias and so many "slap and sew" borders with the way the quilt is assembled you couldn't attach those pieces any other way. The fact that there were so many compounded the issue at the edges. About the only thing that could have prevented that issue from happening was to heavily starch all your fabrics, and I mean stiff as cardstock starching, before starting to reduce the amount they could stretch.

So the only way you can resolve this issue now is to put in some darts and then quilt over them as much as possible to camoflauge them. They really aren't super noticeable once completed. I am thinking, if possible you may be better off putting in several smaller ones rather than one or two large ones.

I was faced with the same issue on a hand pieced client quilt several years ago. Here is a link to pictures I posted of the quilt. If you scroll down to the 5th picture where I posted a close up of the border you can see one of the tucks I had to take at the bottom of that pic. There is another tuck in that same picture closer to the top (near the burgundy diamond) and it is barely noticeable. In fact the only reason you can spot the one near the bottom of the pic is because it is a close up shot. https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictur...c-t244193.html

And yes, I informed the client of the issue before doing the tucks or darts.

Edited to add, it really is a very pretty quilt!

Feline fanatic, thank you so much, I think I’m going to go down the idea of the multiple mini tucks. I didn’t even think of that so thank you! I’ve really enjoyed making this quilt, the pics above are of the front. The quilt back is made up of fabric squares where guests at their wedding wrote their messages with permanent fabric markers, along with the left over squares filled with memories from their life together. I’m very proud of it, however I cannot deny that I now just want it finished and gone. I’ll get cracking on the mini tucks next week. Thank you again :)

I think it is going to be a spectacular quilt. I bet with a few tucks here and there only you will know it. Beautiful quilt.

Such a lovely gift and project!

I think you are on the right track with the solution already given, but instead of horizontal tucks, maybe consider some tucks along the existing stitching lines, like in the picture the large greyish piece above the roses and next to the giraffes in the bottom right corner looks to have a little fullness in it. Bring it in line with the other fabrics at the seam line and no one will know. That might help some (or it might make the other issues worse even). The old obsessive me used to rip out and correct and restitch, the not so obsessive me with vision issues does the tuck type method. Years ago I had problems with one particular quilt back, lots of what I call "pookies" the flaps that sometimes happen, first go around I unquilted about half the quilt and did it again. Still had pookies. Ended up just flipping them down and blindstitching the loose ends and you never noticed it. A good reason for using print backs as opposed to solids, you don't see the pookies!

In my quilting adventures I've learned that recovery from mistakes is important. I've never had to deliberately include a mistake to keep me from too much pride, always have had enough of my own. I think that is a lesson in marriage/life as well. We all face some adversity and overcoming it makes us better.

My project I've got going this weekend is not going as well as I'd like, I'm quilting down a large crib/small twin top. Although I adjusted the tension etc. I haven't quilted anything down on my old machine in years and I probably should have done a test piece before working on a top, I am definitely out of practice. But I tell myself that the recipient won't realize the workmanship is subpar. LOL at least I tell myself that!

Feline fanatic has had so much experience making quilts and quilting that I would be very comfortable following her advice.

Your quilt is very pretty. And welcome to this board, so many knowledgeable and helpful people here.

before you make those multiple tiny tucks like Feline suggests, I would first lay it flat, and spay it heavily with starch and then with steam iron press(not iron back and forth). that will likely take up lots of that bias stretch and minimize the numbers of tucks. I have to do this with customer quilts sometimes--one I just took off the frame that my customer found at her Mom's house--it was her g-ma's. Lots of puckers, etc. Good luck--it's a neat quilt!

Zimheidi, thanks for sharing this problem. A lot of help is given here from everyone.

JanieW, I watched the video and was mesmerized in what could be done with the fullness of the quilt.

I completely took a quilt top apart and recut and stitched it back together
Feline, your work is so outstanding. Beautiful, inspiring.

I had no idea that this magic could be done for a fullness of a quilt top.

This happens often with vintage quilts. After I load a quilt on the longarm, I starch and use a steam iron. This shrinks up to two inches of baggy fabric. A tip from Kelly Cline.