FMQ newbie question
 

Hi all. Thanks for your help on my last quilt. I've been lurking here for a few months but finally started posting.

I'm a self taught quilter. I primarily used this board and the many wonderful blogs out there to learn. Although I still consider myself very green, this is not my first quilt - it's my 10th actually! The first 4 were light summer quilts for my immediate family, pillowcase style, with no batting and simple SID with no walking foot. Then I graduated to a flannel sheet batting but stuck with SID. Recently I've taught myself FMQ which I love. This quilt is my first one to use a real batting albeit a fleece throw.

So my question. I was FMQ'ing happily and successfully until the very end of the quilt where I found a bulge of top fabric. I tried to distribute it sort of evenly so it wouldn't show so much. Picture attached. Why did this happen and what should I have done differently? Thanks!!

http://www.quiltingboard.com/attachm...d=497067&stc=1

Did you pin your quilt or spray baste? I am assuming that you are doing this on a DSM?? I usually stitch in the ditch to secure the quilt from shifting and then FMQ in the areas. With pinning, you need to pin a closed fist between pins to prevent any shifting. Also using cotton batting prevents shifting as Poly will want to shift.

Fleece stretches more than batting, so you need to really secure the sandwich before you start quilting. If you pinned it, you need to use more pins! if you sprayed it, I have found the spray to be less effective on poly than on cotton.

Thanks for the replies fellow quilters. I am using a DSM (a 1958 Kenmore to be exact!) and I did pin baste. I wondered if I pinned too far apart....probably did.

I also wondered if I should SID first. I guess I should have and I probably will in the future. (If I do that, I need to pin baste also right?) I also wondered if my choice of batting played a part here.

I chose not to quilt the borders because I can see there is way too much play in the fabric there to get it to lay flat. I did consider quilting straight lines from the FMQ area of the border to the edge, I guess that's what Tartan meant with "piano key stitching"? (goggled that term but didn't see what I thought it meant). I may add some quilting to the borders still.

All good info for the future. I make mistakes on every quilt but I learn something with each one too.