I am makeing one of those now. It's in the process. Looks beautiful from the top, so far. Well, My Son thinks is the prettiest one I've ever made (so far). He knows its made with Love!

Someone once told me that the puckers are good - they provide extra warmth, like air pockets. No, it's true. Honest.

ah heck just puckers are just a sign of love : )

I also used to have lots of issues with puckers/tucks when I FMQ'd my quilts. At that point, I was just pinning my sandwich together. Then I bravely bought an expensive can of spray and things will never be the same. I LOVE the adhesive spray. I spend a bit more time, smoothing the top and bottom but once I'm finished with that...FMQ'ing is a breeze. I move it all around, fold it up, put it aside for other projects...and the fabric don't move and wrinkle. Best product ever!! Now I just panic if I'm down to my last can!

I abandoned the polyester batting because I couldn't get the basting spray to work with it. Then, someone on the board gave us the link to Sharon Schaumberg's (sp???) "Basting With Boards" videos on You Tube and I've never looked back! I don't make many large quilts but this method has made the sandwiching process SO much easier and I can now use any kind of batting with the assurance that the back will NOT pucker. I only use the spray now on very small pieces. The "Boards" is a great technique and certainly worth a try. Just "google" "Basting with Boards" and scroll to the video showing the two bright pink pieces of fabric in the thumbnail.

I spray baste also and love it. Introduced it to my quilting friendship group and we all spray now. We love that there are NO puckers. We use my king bed to layer on and it saves the back. We have better success using a slightly different method. Batting down first, arrange backing, fold backing back spray and smooth down. Fold other side back, spray and smooth. Flip it over, arrange on the top and repeat the process. I have personally made 160 quilts and assisted my friends with countless others.

Sorry to say, I have done it more than once, them I decide to tack and not quilt, it is very forgiving.
Not as happy but it works and washes very well.

the man who is to receive this quilt is my....boyfriend. yes. there i said it.

and he loves it. even when i pointed out the glaring creases (they are too big to be called puckers at this point) he really didn't "see" what i meant.

he kissed me and told me to get 'er done.

that's motivation!

aileen

also, i think the flannel i used, which was from my bin' might actually be stretching as i quilt it.

i've never had more than a little pucker or two, and i know what i did wrong.

i won't do it again but i might try both the fusible batting and the spray at some point in the near future :)

thanks for your suggestions! love this place <3

aileen

Tucks and puckers can happen to the best quilters, so frustrating! It doesn't matter if it is done on a quilting frame or pinned/basted with thread. I was just at the Machine Quilters Exposition (MQX) in Portland, Oregon last week and saw a quilt that had been quilted by a very well known quilter/teacher/author and was astounded to see a small tuck in the backing. I know that the owner of the quilt had to have paid a pretty penny to have this person quilt for them and the quilt/quilting was lovely...but a tuck?? Just goes to show that ANYONE can get a tuck in a quilt backing. If it really bugs you, you can hand sew them down with little needle-turn applique stitches and if the backing is nice and busy, it will be hidden. Or you can applique blocks over the offending areas...or a large label. Appliqueing things to the back of a quilt is also a way to hide stitching when the tension goes off in areas - had to do that with a quilt one time because I didn't want to frog that much quilting...ended up looking totally awesome!