Excessive fraying
 

I'm getting what seems like really excessive fraying from a certain fabric line. The quilt top is complete and I've trimmed all the little strings, but if I so much as breathe in its general direction, all the edges are stringy again. I'm afraid its going to dsappear on me!

I read that starching can help and I'll try that, but I expect this will be loved & washed many times. Will the quilting process put a stop to it? Should it be quilted densely? I hadn't planned on anything really dense because I read it makes for a slightly less "cozy" quilt, but if its needed I will. I haven't actually quilted a top yet, so I'll probably do something basic like straight lines.

My current favorite fabric line frays a lot. I just handle it carefully - I try not to do any 'unsewing'. I quilt about 2 -4" apart and don't have any concerns about the seams. I did ask a friend to check his quilt because I had to do some very narrow seams to center a feature.

Once it is sandwiched and quilted it should be ok, as long as no seams are actually coming apart. You don’t have to do extreme dense quilting but do follow the minimum requirements for the chosen batting. A cross hatch in straight lines, or even gently wavy lines will probably take any stress off your seams..
I always starch my fabric before cutting, it helps with nice accurate cuts and does cut down on excessive fraying. But it’s too late now. Unless you have very light fabrics with dark threads showing through I wouldn’t worry too much about clipping them.

I use a shorter stithc length when I have this problem. If the seam allowance is extremely small, I stitch a second line right next to but not right on top of the first line of stitching. I've had seams come apart and it is not fun to repair.

Thanks everyone! I have enough fabric to make a second quilt, I'll definitely starch before cutting and use a shorter stitch next time. So far none of the seam allowances have considerably shortened. I'll plan for a little denser quilting.

I use a similar technique as Pennyhal when I have a fraying fabric. Shorter stitch length on the 1/4 inch seam and then a normal stitch length on a wavy seam in the seam allowance. Having the extra seam slightly wavy seems to stop the fraying. If I sew it straight, then the fabric frays right up to the stitching. Doing it as wavy allows me to go almost to the edge and then back up into the seam allowance. Some people have used a serger on the fraying fabric edge. All that thread can make the quilt too stiff, but sometimes can be the only way to stop the fraying. I have pinking shears but have never tried them on any fraying fabric since I have been quilting. I'll have to try that one of these days. Mostly, once I find out that the fabric frays like crazy, I only use it when I don't have anything else that will do.

I find that Moda and Kona frays a lot. I usually starch it stiff before cutting. That helps.

I found fabrics from Connecting Threads frayed terribly. I also starch most all my fabrics including pre-cuts to help with this problem. Helps some but if yo manhandle the fabrics too much during the sewing process they seem to fray or at least for me they do.

For quilting down, if your machine has an option chose something like a serpentine stitch, that is something a bit wider and looser than a zig zag, but go ahead and run that down 1/2" so wide right over those major seams to hold them down.

Depending then on how big your sub-units are and what your batting wants, further grid it down using that serpentine stitch. It is an easy utility stitch that makes things look fancier than they are and has the added benefit of basically appliqueing the top through the layers.