I have just finished stitching in the ditch a full size quilt. The back has three places that have puckering.

Would you rip out the stitching and redo it?

It's for my sister. She has asked for two years for a quilt from me. Now it's puckery on the quilt back.

Thanks!

Can you show us some pictures?

I have just done the same and took out a small part of the stitching,,, about 6 inches either side of the problem area..

Then put it back on the machine and re sewed it, paying attention to letting the machine do the work properly..

Are you using a walking foot? if so, just let the machine do the work and it will ease the pucker away...make sure you have the quilt flat and smooth when you start...

Hope this helps and you have success...

Here are the pics.

I think Jstitch is right on this. It's not real bad puckering, so I would do just what jstitch suggested.

If Judy's suggestion doesn't work (it should because they look little) applique a little patch over it.

Personally I would take it out and redo it.

Sybil

OK, I think that these are fixable..

I would try it on one, maybe the least offensive one.. and see if you can work it out.. then move on to the next one...

Here is what I would do...

remove the stitching about 6 inches on each side of the pucker...

lay the quilt flat on a table and pin baste along the quilting line about every two inches and about 1 1/2 inches away from where you are going to sew. Do this on both sides of the quilting line. Turn it over and check to make sure you havent bastes another pucker in...

By the way, when I pin baste, I put all the pins in while the quilt is laying flat, then go back and close them, so I dont distort the back

Put it back into the machine, and using your walking foot, quilt it again..allowing the machine to do the easing of the fullness both on the top and the bottom..

Let us know how it works..

Thank you very much. I'll try that.

I would only because I am a perfectionist.

I'm very unhappy with the way it looks.

I may also take another seam out. I'm not happy with an area on the front of the quilt either. It's not puckered. It's just not lying flat.

I was very careful when quilting this quilt. I used a walking foot and my quilting gloves. Gently guiding it into the machine. Constantly fluffing it so that it didn't bunch up.

Oh well, it wasn't meant to be done the first time. Hopefully the second quilting will go well.

Sometimes I get those puckers because I can't keep from pulling..........I have to almost tape my hand to my chair at times. It just wants to "help" move the fabric along. I'm working on two baby quilts right now for my niece, she just had her second baby of 2008 on Christmas Eve and since she had the first one while Roy was still in hospital I never got 'roundtoit. I just know that one of them is going to pucker and I'll end up taking out part of it.

Good luck, Carol, I'll hold crossed fingers for you, k?
Hugs,
Sharon

I suspect that the problems you have encountered are due to not enough basting... did you use spray basting or pin basting?

If you used spray basting, the layer may not have been completly flat with no bumps, spaces, or puckers in any of the layers
If you used pins, you didnt use enough or didnt pin close enough..

Thank you!!

Please post the pics of your quilts when you are finished.

This was my first quilt top made with my new to me Singer Featherweight that my dh bought for me for Christmas.

I was hoping that all would go well with it when I stitched in the ditch with my Janome.

Oh well. I'll take it apart and see how well I can fix it.

I pinned and I tried to space them a hand width apart.

I've tried the spray basting and my needle would get all gummy.

I know there are allot of people on this message board who love the spray basting, but I've not had good luck with it. I wish that I could. It seems as though it works well for allot of you.

Are you talking about taking out ALL of the quilting?

Why dont you post pics of the front that you are worried about..
and a pic of the whole top and whole back,,

perhaps you are being too critical of your work..

Did you spray or pin baste?

I like you, am a perfectionist. Or I try to be. Though sometimes I have to just let it go.

More pics of the quilt back

Carol,
I have experienced the same problem as you have. A dear friend of mine taught me to take out the bad parts, then lay tissue paper under the quilt as you re-stitch the stitching. The tissure paper acts like a stabilizer while you are sewing. It always seems to work for me. Oh yes, be sure to use your walking foot.

Good Luck,
Cheryl

Thank you. I hadn't thought of stabilizing it.

I am using my walking foot. :)

OK, some of this may be due to the spray basting , if that is what you used.. you will have to wash the quilt for the basting spray to "let go"

Is that what you used? That is what it looks like from here...lol

I completely understand the perfectionist mentality..I just ripped a whole quilt worth of quilting I didnt like...

No. I only pin baste because I've had issues with the spray basting. I have two large tables that I push together. I lay my backing down and clamp it. Then I lay my batting down and clamp to the back. Then the top is clamped to all. I start in the center and work my way out pin basting every hand width.

I may just rip out everything. :(

I know you are unhappy with spray basting,A good one will not gum up your machine. BUUUT if you use craft spray glue it will,and there is a difference. HOW DO I KNOW,DONE THAT. OMG WHAT A MESS THOUGHT I HAD RUINED MY MACHINE. It is not the same as quilt basting spray. Also in my own experience, if you don't have the backing taut enough it will pucker,DONE THAT. If you just use the basting spray on a large quilt and it is not 100 percent cotton it will comes loose quickly. That includes the batting. Like the real fluffy kind I like to use for the soft look on the kids quilt.The basting Glue just doesn't hold the poly kind very well. So when I spray a large quilt all at once I also do some basting. But as a rule I only spray glue on a small quilt. The crayon quilts,because I was in such a hurry has a couple little pleats on front and back. On the front it is close to the mider points on the back it is somewhere in the middle. Unless you point it out because the material is dark you cant see it. I only spray basted and some of the material on the back is not 100 percent cotton. To me even though it is a YUK job to some I believe stretching back pretty tight on floor pinning if you have carpet,taping with masking tape if you have wood or tile floors,then spreading batting smooth it out,then put you top on and smooth it out but don't stretch it. Then pin baste. I have learned to baste on a table top thanks to my quilting quild. I probably didn't help you but just couldn't help myself because you are doing like I use to do. It just makes you so mad when you turn your quilt over and see that pleat,pucker. I truly hope you find a way to fix it. Sisters don't mind mistakes. It is the fact that you took the time and love to fix it for her. That is what counts.
Bill'sBonBon

Thank you so much for that.

You are so kind to say those nice things.

This may not help you now, but I have found that the following prep eliminates any puckering for me.

I starch the backing fabric. Spray starch seems to get away from me, so what I do now is lay out my fabric on the kitchen island and "paint" it with a diluted starch solution I make myself. I use the blue bottle of starch you can buy in laundry aisles, diluted either 1:1 or 1:2 with water, using an actual large paintbrush! I give the fabric a half-hour or so to absorb the starch well, then throw it in the dryer. When I iron the fabric, it becomes quite stiff. This stiffness means the fabric won't have a chance to bunch up when I am machine quilting the sandwich.

The other thing that really helps is spray basting the sandwich together, rather than pinning or hand basting. The spray baste makes a very firm sandwich and holds all the layers tightly together, so the fabric you can't see doesn't really have a chance to pucker.

If I could do only one of the above to prevent puckering, it would be to spray baste the quilt sandwich.

For repairing your current quilt without taking it apart, I would probably try to starch the backing fabric after taking out the stitching. You could use several layers of spray starch to do this. Just be sure after spraying to give the starch a few minutes to sink into the fabric before ironing; otherwise the starch can stick to your iron and/or flake off the fabric. Be careful too, not to have the iron so hot it scorches the starch. Scorched starch will wash out, but it's not a good feeling to see it! I would probably use a steam iron held an inch above the fabric first, to help the starch sink in and also to see if the backing fabric will shrink a little to get rid of the excess in the pucker. I'd finish with regular ironing.

Mary

Thanks!!!

Would it be to much to stabilize and spray starch the fabric.

I don't really want to take it apart, but I also can't leave it as it is.

Sorry, I wasn't completely clear.

My directions for spray starching were for not taking the entire quilt sandwich apart. If the puckering isn't too extensive, I would probably take out the stitching in one area and try the spray starch approach in that area to see if I could then re-stitch it without puckering. It seems to me it might be possible to take some of the excess fabric out with steaming, and then the starch would help keep the backing from re-puckering when you repair that area.

Incidentally, I didn't realize there was a second page to this thread until after I posted. I prefer cotton battings, so didn't realize spray basting doesn't work as well with poly battings. The spray I use is from JoAnn Fabrics and made especially for quilt basting. This has never gummed up my sewing machine needle.

Mary

<Would it be to much to stabilize and spray starch the fabric. >

If you are taking the quilt sandwich apart, you could certainly spray starch the backing fabric. It would take several layers to get it stiff enough, though, and you have to be careful to let the spray starch absorb each time before ironing. It's much faster and a lot less work to use the "painting" method I described. The fabric doesn't need to be completely dry before taking it out of the dryer to iron; just dry enough so your iron doesn't get gummed up with lots of starch.

Basically, you want the backing fabric to be very stiff before layering the sandwich. In my experience, one or two layers of spray starch won't be enough; I would guess it would take four layers or so.

If taking the quilt sandwich apart, I would also starch the top. For that, I would definitely use spray starch. Even just one layer would help. The top doesn't have to be as stiff as the backing fabric because you can see puckers coming. I would probably spray starch once from the back, and then give the top an extra spray starch from the top.

Mary

My quilting teacher (who also judges at our county fair) always has me take straight pins and pin all the way when I stitch in the ditch as it keeps it from puckering. I have found that it really helps me from getting those puckers on the back of the quilt. Good luck in fixing your quilt. It is very nice.
Judy

It seems that this pucker is a matter of not enough pinning or basting, as was indicated by other posters. I have just been through the same thing. When I ripped the one seam that had the pucker, laid the quilt flat and repositioned the pins (very close together), and restitched letting the walking foot do it's thing, it worked out. The next quilt, I needle-and-thread basted close together and got no puckers.

The pink fabric is very pretty and complements the quilt top.

Perhaps next time you could use a printed fabric which would be more forgiving and the puckers would not be so obvious.

Just a thought. Suz

I have also had this problem. I ripped out a small area as suggested by others and pinned before resewing. I had tried using less pins and that is how I got the puckers. Usually I pin, pin, pin when I am not using the machine on a frame. I normally place my pins about 3 fingers apart.
Good luck and they are small enough that they should work out just fine.

Carol,
Did you prewash your fabric? You might find, if you temp bind, wash, and line dry.....it works itself out. Oh, the puckers that are obvious to you, you'll likely want to try to fix, but I would surely do a wash and dry before I leap into having the ripit fever! The quilt is just beautiful, you've done a wonderful job.

ONE thing I think you need to tell yourself, "Quilting is fun NOT Perfection", repeat as needed to be convinced. It took me awhile to learn to loosen up and enjoy the finished look and not concentrate on any imperfections. Most that see the quilts never see imperfections, they see the love that built it!

Hugs,
Sharon

Thank you all for all the wonderful suggestions.

I have taken out the puckers but I have not decided whether I'll take out all the quilting and start again or just try to stitch the areas that I've ripped out.

I'm leaning toward trying to restitch and starch.

Thank you all for your encouragement!!!

Now that your puckers are ripped out, pin the dickens out of them and stitch slowly. Your walking foot will probably take care of it.

I don't understand the concept of starching. I would think that the ironing will flatten or matt the batting. I've starched fabric, but never once the quilt is assembled. I suppose that's what I like about this board. Somewhere, somehow, someone has done something that has worked. :lol:

Before i give my suggestion, I will admit to two things: being somewhat new to quilting, and I confess I am a nut about what other people will think, so I am not sure I could do this suggestion myself. I'd probably rip till the cows came home...thus, quiltncrazy, lol!!!!!!!
If you are really unhappy with the back, bc the front is very pretty, what if you covered the back with another back, and tied it instead of machining. If you don't want ties on front, just do lots of ties and bury in the batting. The front is already quilted. I don't know if this would make your quilt stiff or heavy.
I think you probably need a (((hug)) for all that work.
I hope you can do something that makes you happy with it. C