First quilt, absolute mess. Skewed squares.
 

Hello!

I'm an intermediate sewer that has always been fascinated by quilts. Having a baby niece join the family made for the perfect excuse to finally make one! She is having her first birthday in a few weeks, and so I started gathering fabric a few weeks ago to begin.

Her absolute favorite song, even as a tiny baby, was "What Does the Fox Say?" and I found two adorable nursery prints with foxes on them. It was meant to be! After choosing the fabrics and cutting my squares as carefully as possible, I found a few pictures online of patchwork patterns and started to lay everything out.

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/d...psgdy9559l.jpg

This was my first frustration. I could not find a way to follow any sort of pattern and not have the two fox prints touching in at least some areas. I eventually gave up. Hopefully it doesn't look too bad?

I decided to piece the quilt top with my serger, as I love my serger and I find it so much easier and quicker to use than my sewing machine. It wasn't far into piecing that I began to realize that my blocks weren't lining up the way they needed to. I expected this somewhat, but not to this extent.

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/d...psmmmi0agp.jpg

After letting it raise my blood pressure a little, I just shrugged it off and figured that I can try to ask for help on how to fix this. You can see that the one knit fabric is the main one giving me fits, but I simply must have it in the quilt. It is her favorite texture.

Now that I have the columns pieced, I laid everything back out just to see how it started to match up. The columns aren't pressed yet, but I can already see some discrepancies.

I want to minimize the skewing as much as possible. I assume that first, I have to take the columns and shave the edges off to get those straight? I used a rotary cutter and mat/ruler to do the blocks, which looked awesome, but you see how well that worked out.

I just know that if it's a little off when I start, by the time I get to the end, a few millimeters off will turn into half an inch in some areas.

Argh! What can I do?

So, you're mixing minky fleece and cotton blocks for your quilt?

Not an impossible task, but you would probably have better luck using a walking foot on your regular sewing machine. A walking foot would help to feed both layers together. Before you reassemble your entire quilt top, you may want to play with a few scraps using the walking foot to see if it feeds better with the cotton fabric on the top or the bottom. I don't use minky a lot because all of that fuzz makes me crazy, so I'm not sure which fabric will feed better on the top.

welcome to the board!

You say your an intermediate sewer... ah but grasshopper... quilting is different. Quilters sew with 1/4" seam, sewers 1/2" or 5/8". Quilter use smaller pieces, the smaller the piece the MORE accurate you need to be with that 1/4" seam.

Also I see you have minkie fabric with you cottons. Minkie stretches more than cotton.

I can understand why you want to use the serger, minkie ravels. BUT if you have to un-sew, it is a pain in the A$$.

good luck

Yup! I'm insane, I know!

I considered that solution, but the "cush" of that fabric makes it so shifty that I can't even pick it up without it moving right across and becoming misaligned again. It's hard to explain, but knowing my machines and my operation, it wouldn't be a great fix. Also, the columns are already pieced and they are not coming back apart! Essentially, I gave up and just tried to match the other squares as best as I could and write those off.

The main thing I'm looking at right now is the best way to trim the edges to make them flush again. Then, I can only assume that I'll make sure all of the seams are pressed flat and try to match them up when I sew the columns together, and use an insane amount of pins to hold each seam to the one it's supposed to be aligned with.

Welcome from Texas. I've never sewn with minky, but I've heard it helps to have a stabilizer on the backside to make it more manageable.

The only way I have seen Minky mixed with cotton in quilt tops is as an applique. One lady in our Linus group pieces cotton quilts and then to add texture, she appliques Minky, fleece, and other textured non-cotton fabric circles positioned here and there on the top. In your case, since matching seams might be a problem, the appliques could be placed right over a bad seam match and nobody would be the wiser. It is true that the little children love the textures on their quilts!

To be honest with you, I'm not sure how you'll be able to trim the edges accurately. Because the squares are coming together wonky, your rows aren't straight. When you take a straight edge to trim the overhang, how will you make sure that you aren't actually cutting at an angle? That would mess you up terribly when you go to attach rows. I don't know how you will be able to prevent that since the rows aren't squared up. If you did somehow find a way to trim them accurately, you would need to trim all of the rows, otherwise some of your rows will be made up of smaller squares than others. I hope that made sense.

That said, welcome to the board! I truly hope that you find a good solution. Once you have the top pieced together, quilting and washing will hide a multitude of sins. :P

Can you add sashing in between the columns so that you won't have to really match seams? If you maybe do 1in sashes in between (cutting 1.5in) then after quilting, it shouldn't be noticeable. Normally, I'd do all flannel or all cotton on the front and save the minky for the backing since as you've found, it stretches and frays so much! Adorable fox print, though!

I have not used minky yet and I may in the near future. I also heard or read you may need to stabilize the minky to make it not stretch so much. Please show us when you are done. You could applique a minky fox on the front.

The only way I can figure is to line the seams up with the lines of my cutting mat to ensure that they are lying straight, then allowing me to cut a better edge. It can never be perfect at this point, but it's far too off right now to even get a semblance of a matching line.

What I would do in this situation is *not* try to match seams! I would offset each row so seams fall somewhat in the middle of the row before. This is a quilt that will be loved a lot, so I would aim for making it do-able and finish-able.

I got the idea for the minky when I saw this quilt kit at Walmart: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Creative-C...Brown/31956271

The backing will also be the minky fabric. Don't even bother telling me how crazy I am. I will be looking into a stabilizer to assist with the backing, though. Great idea.

That's an interesting idea. I am going to lay the columns out and offset them to see how that looks. I'll take a pic to get opinions.

Okay, all I can tell you is what I would do...and I was a seamstress for 48 years before I started quilting 4 years ago. I have never used minky fabric and I have never used a serger, though my sister has one that she loves.

If I was trying to put this quilt together, I would trim each column as well as I could. I wouldn't worry if each column was the same width as all the others. I just wouldn't. Just make each column straight on each side, with right angles at the top and bottom of each column.Then I would forget using the serger and sew the columns together with a 1/4 inch seam....(that was the hardest thing for this old seamstress to learn!!!) If the squares aren't all the same size, it won't really matter. No one will care.

I can't tell how large your squares are, maybe four inches??? I am trying to visualize this, but I think I would add two borders...a small inner one and a larger outer one....maybe an inch and a half and then five inches, or maybe four. I would use the darkest fabric as the outer border and then a lighter fabric as the inner border. I would try to use fabric in my borders that matched fabric in the squares. (Experiment laying different fabric beside your quilt to decide what you like best for the borders.)

The fox fabric is so cute. This will be a great baby quilt, even though it may not end up being exactly what you had intended. That isn't uncommon. Many of my quilts have ended up way different than I thought they would, including the one I am just finishing now. :)

If you can't figure out how to do something....like actually quilting it or adding borders or something, simply google it. You will find answers to any question that way....or ask this group. It is a very helpful group. Without them, I wouldn't have even been able to change the blade in my rotary cutter the first time!

Good luck. You can make this work, and if none of what I have suggested sounds like what you want to do, that is okay too. That is what is great about quilting....it is your quilt, you can do whatever you want with it. :)

Dina

Ha, more answers for you came in while I was typing. Not matching the seams is an excellent idea!!!!

Dina

You can do it and it will be cute! Trim your rows so the edges are straight and offset the seams rather than lining them up. Minky does tend to be a little tricky to piece but it's so soft that few can resist it.:)

I'd do the no match of the seams...think bricks in a wall.... and add sashing. Pick a totally different fabric for the sashing and use it for the last, outside border and it will all be tied together. FYI...years ago, I made a quilt similar to yours, except that I added appliqued circles of chenille fabric. The child I made it for is now 8 and loves this quilt to this day. I wish I had made it larger. She loves the feel of the chenille. Guess I'll just have to make her another one.

A comment about a serger...it is really hard, as you have found out, to keep seams at a quarter of an inch with a serger, and there is really no need to use the serger. All the seams are on the inside and, though some fabrics may ravel a bit worse than others, you are usually putting a back on it quick enough not to have too much trouble with the ravels.

We, as quilters, are our worse critics. I still want my quilts perfect, but my grandkids don't even see my errors. They just love that I made it for them. The child you are making this for won't care if it is a bit wonky or not perfect, trust me.

I was a wedding dress designer and dressmaker before I quilted, you normally match your seams and sew with a straight stitch on a 5/8 inch seam on a garment and then overlock/serge to finish off. Because a serger moves so fast and cuts at the same time, the pull of the feed dogs creates the mismatch of the two layers if not already stitched together. I would mismatch my seams deliberately and make it a 'design feature'. As you are going to back with minky and this is your first quilt, I would use the birthing method to attach the backing, which you could use your serger for. Good luck I am sure it will be soft cuddly and a much loved quilt xxx

I have sewned with minky a lot. I use a dab of Elmer's washable school glue to hold pieces together then sew your seam. It will not shift. Glue will wash out. You don't need a lot. I've backed many with minky also. Again I used Elmer's washable school glue to sandwich the quilt. I have no puckers on the back whatsoever. Give it a try.

one thing about this- you say the (gift) is intended for a soon to be 1 year old.... she is going to love it whether it is wonky or not- so, don't beat yourself up too much and consider it a learning experience... a nice even straight stitch is generally what creates precise seams in a quilt- a serger is great for knit fabrics and garment sewing- but not so much when quilting. but, it will be fine. that baby is not going to care if the seams line up, she is going to love it because it is soft & cuddly and all hers- the fact that you did use the serger means it is going to be able to take lots of use/abuse- could wind up being that drag around, never leave home with out it blankie for her whole life (my youngest brother-in-law) still has 'pieces' of his favorite baby blanket tucked in a dresser drawer & he is 40-something) this could easily wind up *that blanket* ... so, continue on- learn some lessons- and know she is going to just love it-regardless of how well things line up. :)

If that was mine I would probably recut the squares a little smaller to get rid of the serger sewing (rather than pick it out) and sew it on a regular machine with 1/4 seams and probably use some kind of stabilizer under the stretchy, perhaps tear away stabilizer with a little spray glue or Elmers to hold it temporarily (?). You will figure it out and it will be nice. Quilting is a learning experience. Meaning what I do one way isn't necessarily how I do it the next. I figure out easier ways as I go along. Good luck and show us when you get finished!

I have not sewn with minky but if I were you, I would consider cutting the squares apart and squaring them up by making them smaller. I would then sew with the 1/4" seam with the walking foot. And I would replace the minky with a pink cotton. I would add a border if I needed it bigger. I know I saw a discussion on here about sewing with minky. I would look under advanced search. Maybe you could use minky for the backing. Welcome to the board. You will learn so much here.

Your doing alright. a one year old won't mind if it is wonky anyway. It doesn't have to be perfect. I was remind today of "if your doing the best you can do, accept it and other will love it regardless". We are way to harder on ourselves than we need to be, myself included. I love my serger too, but it is a different animal sewing minkee on a serger than a regular machine. I would stick to your regular machine on this. It is all good. It will come together and you will learn from it. I am still learning :)

When you sew seams together with a serger you will have a hard time making the seam even everytime, at least that's what I've experienced. I know you mentioned that you love sewing with your serger, but there is a price to pay for it.

Oh this is going to be an adorable an soft quilt!! :)

I understand you are newer to quilting than garment sewing - do you chain piece? This was a new concept to me when I moved into quilting. Quilting is a very different realm of sewing (as already stated) with its own set of guidelines. These are likely not matching up because first, you may not be sewing at an accurate 1/4" seam using your serger...and second...most sergers trim away excess so if you make a "whoops!" there's no getting that fabric trimmed away back! :)

Probably the biggest difference between quilting and other kinds of sewing is the math. Unless you're entering shows you don't have to be absolutely machine perfect...only as perfect as YOU want to be...however, you do need to be at least relatively accurate or you'll have the issues you're having now - things don't line up.

The best thing you can do to start is - use your 1/4" foot (or measure 1/4" from your needle to a point on your needle plate and mark it) - be consistent. Chain piecine will really help with speed - and that serger, while we love it for other kinds of sewing, I would suggest to set it aside for quilting. I have been quilting for ten years and have created a business out of my passion - I STILL make mistakes and need the flexibility of being able to open up those seams.

Another thing - have you heard of "nesting" seams when you match up your blocks? Try pressing seams in oppose direcitons, the when you match up two seams for perfect points, nestle the "hump" of each opposite side against the other (with right sides of fabric together). If you google "nesting seams quilting" you will get some pictures to really help you understand what I mean.

You have moved from the East Coast to the West Coast in the world of sewing!! ;) My Mother is a very skilled garment sewer - but comes to me still for questions regarding quilts! You will do wonderfully very quickly because you already have the skillset and you are just applying it differently. Good luck!

The squares are cut at 6 inches and I allowed for a 1/2" seam since I pieced with a serger. I know that isn't the traditional seam allowance for quilting, but I'm not a rule follower, as you can see! I don't want the blocks smaller, so I'm not inclined to cut and re-piece the columns. The solutions I'm looking at now involve how to work with what I've got. Since this is my very first quilt, I'm resigned to the fact that it will never be amazing, but I do want to do my best.

I Googled quilt sashing and it looks like that is between all the blocks? Regardless, I don't live by the fabric store that I got all of the fabric from, so I'm fresh out of the stuff aside from the extra blocks I cut. I'm going to use those to continue the pattern down to the next row that starts and ends with the brown since I'm losing some length now with the off-setting.

The suggestion to start with the regular machine and then serge is attractive to me and something I never would have thought of. Thanks for that!

As to the comments about how the baby will like it... I sure hope so. Her favorite blankets at the moment are all minky, which is why I chose that for the backing and brought a few squares of it to the top for repetition. She loves her texture.

This is the adorable recipient, by the way!

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/...71105255_n.jpg

I'm a quilter who has a bff that makes baby quilts. Now, why did I say this like that? I have offered to help her put her baby blankets together, but she wants none of it. She sees no purpose in matching seams and thinks I must be nuts to cut perfectly good fabric into little pieces. She has these wopper jawed blocks and doesn't mind a bit (Would drive me crazy!). That being said, did you check if your blocks were square? Quilting is way different than clothes sewing, you cut things differently, and things must be squared up. You could have used the minkee on the back and given her her fav texture that way. However it turns out, she will love it, so don't fret so much. It's all just a learning process.

Agree with all the suggestions...best not to try to match seams. BUT, if you do decide to try to match seams on this or your next project ;), you should iron seams opposite directions for each column and "nest" them. "Nesting" means that when you place the two columns right sides together one seam faces up and the other down so with your fingers you can make them come together perfectly at the intersection. Then pin at each such intersection and sew. Your seam also will be flat at these intersections. Thought as a first-time quilter you might not know this...if you already do, please disregard! Also, in general sewing you often iron seams open; in quilting generally it is better to iron to one side or the other, as it creates a stronger seam when quilted.

Beautiful recipient! She definitely does not look like the Quilt Police (nasty horrible people who nit-pick about what is RIGHT and what is oh so WRONG with your quilt just because you didn't do it the way THEY would have. We don't like them on this board!!)

You have been given a lot of ideas and useful advice on this thread. The only thing I will add is: Next time (and there will be a next time, now that the quilting bug has bitten), perhaps you could back the quilt with minky and applique some big minky flowers on the front. Same idea, lots less hassle.

That is one cute baby. She will love it for the colors and softness of the minky. Just finish it as is and use poly batting. I would just tie this one and it will look just fine. You would not believe what my first quilt looks like. My husband still prefers to use it on the bed. It is a far cry from what I am able to create now. Chalk this one up to a learning experience and enjoy that beautiful smile on the baby.

I like the idea of offsetting the seams, sort of like a brickwork or subway tile layout. Sashing can be tricky for a new quilter, I think, because of the long narrow pieces.

The great thing is that "wonky" quilts are in vogue right now, so just say you deliberately made it that way and nobody will ever know!

And don't worry about your foxes touching, I think your layout is just fine. The baby will love it!

I'm pretty new at this myself (just started last year) but haven't honestly found sashing to be difficult. However, since OP has said she doesn't have access to more fabric, I'd definitely agree with offsetting the columns and maybe with what you would have to trim off, add it back to the top of the column so it remains roughly the correct length as the others. It'll be slightly smaller because of the new seam, but less than if you had to trim every column.

I once made a quilt for someone using cotton, minky, corduroy and flannel. I thought I would quit sewing alltogether! The minky stretches more than the cotton. I think you would be better off using a walking foot on a regular sewing machine. I liked the idea that someone had of using sashing, that way you don't have to line up the blocks. Regardless of what you figure out to do, the child will love it!! That fabric is so cute.

How about putting the minky on the back side of the quilt, using one large piece?

Plush fabric travels under the feed dogs, i.e., velvet, velveteen, etc. So that makes it harder. I would think stabilizer would help, but will also make it stiffer which could defeat the purpose in the first place. Those fabrics are so cute and whatever you do, good luck and welcome. Maybe you could put the minkee on the back and keep the front all cotton???

Since the Minky is so stretchy, pin it in lots of places. I have also read that some apply a thin stream of washable glue to hold it in place to the adjoining fabric before stitching. Or use a stabilizer backing fabric as others have suggested.

pumpkinpatchquilter, very well put. You should be a teacher. I hope you do quilting classes!!

Another idea would be to elmer's glue the pieces together before sewing - it works better than pinning to keep things from shifting around. But I really like the 'don't worry about them lining up' idea, too.

Use a stabilizer on the back of the Minky like you would use if you were doing a t shirt quilt. I would suggest using French fuse or Armoweft

I use minky frequently in quilts, mixed with quilting cottons, flannels and ultra-cuddle fabrics. The key to success that I've found is to use my walking foot and pin like crazy. Like every inch- and go slowly. Also helps to have the stretch material on the bottom next to the feed dogs. I love the affect, and it's totally worth the effort. You can do this!