I am absolutely horrified
 

Last year I made a quilt for my son and his wife and she asked me if I would wash it for them at the end of the season which I did. To my horror I noticed a thread hanging down from it whilst it was drying and on closer inspection I noticed that quite a lot of the quilting was coming undone at the end of each row. I had used a cross hatch design.

I have always pulled my ends through to the back and tied them off and have never encountered this before.

Has anyone else had this problem and if so what did you do to fix it and what should I do in the future to stop it happening again.

BTW this is the only quilt that I have used a wool batting. Could this be the problem though I do not see how.

do you knot it before pulling it thru? I tie one little knot at the end - similar to what i do at the beginning - then pull it thru. I will then still run the thread about 3 or 4 inches out before cutting the thread.

On a cross-hatch design, I'll tie it off over the edge - like a back stitch. It would be concealed in the binding.

I would have thought the binding would keep everything secure. Sorry that happened though I have no advice to offer.
Rodney

Bummer!! I'm not sure what I would do. I try to do some short stitches at the beginning and end of each row but don't know that I always remember. I'm very new to the quilting part and don't have a lot of experience. This is something I will watch for in the future.

I'm of no help on the problem of the stitches coming loose - sorry. But I would like to know how you washed the quilt, particularly since it had wool batting. Thank you in advance for sharing the information with us.

How sad. I hope someone can help you determine why this happened and that you will you will be able to repair it

I'm also guessing that the quilting on the end has broken from use, tugging on one end of the quilt. I would just requilt that end. I've used wool batting before and not had a problem. Don't hand quilt, so sure why the quilting threads broke. Possibly something to do with the tension? Too loose? Too tight?

I have read your posts and gone back and had a very close inspection of the quilt and the problem.

All the stitching is intact except for the ends where I brought it through to the back and tied them off. I am beginning to suspect that the knots have come undone somehow.

So what I intend doing is as you suggested paperprincess and that is re -quilt the ends and make sure that I do a very small backstitch and when pulling the threads through to the back that I will tie them 3 times instead of twice and leave longer tails to thread back through the wadding.


As for washing the quilt I put it in my machine - which has a big wash bowl - with a couple of colour catchers and just put it on a very gentle cycle. I did not let it go to spin I took it out with the help of hubby and put in on the line where it was given a good hose down to remove any suds and being a windy hot day it was dry by late afternoon. The washing result I was very happy with - it came out looking just like new - no crinkles, no colour runs - I always pre-wash my fabrics to start with - or shrinkage. Just the ends came undone.

Why do you not spin the quilt in the washer? I use Hobbs wool bating for most of my quilts and never had a problem spinning or drying in the dryer. I don't use a hot setting for the dryer.