You may have to do heavy quilting or a type of darning stitch to reinforce it enough. Unless you want to do that much work you might need to opt for another quilt. So sorry this happened to you.All the best.

This happened to me with a denim quilt (made with squares) -- when washed the first time several of the seams unraveled. Because it was made with a fleece backing and done envelope style and then tied, I used strips of denim to overlay each seam that raveled. It worked and I keep several strips made up for each time I wash it (which isn't all that often) in case other seams unravel. The reason for my problem was scanty seams ------ will never do that again! Once burned - twice shy (as my Mama would say).

Does your machine do a zig zag stitch? Would you be able to do a close zig zag over each piece where the raveling is a problem? Thinking you might be able to make it look appliqued on with a close enough stitch.

I'd be bummed, too. Your quilt is beautiful and I love the fabric you used.

The very first quilt I made to sell was a roman stripe quilt. For some unknown reason, some of the black fabric had little holes in it. I did prewash the fabric and didn't see it while I was quilting it on the machine. Not knowing what else to do, I "appliqued" a new triangular piece of black fabric over the black fabric that "came apart". I appliqued it by hand, then repeated the quilting in the diagonal lines. Fortunately, that seemed to work, but I was embarassed that the first quilt I actually sold had a problem. If you can't applique over the fabric, perhaps FMQ over it would solve the problem.

When you washed it maybe the backing shrunk more (or less?) than the front, put stress on the tied spots and the weaker areas of fabric just couldn't take the stress? Maybe you can machine quilt what your machine can reach and either re-tie or hand quilt the center portion. I'm curious if the cross fabric was brand-new or vintage, and if vintage where it was stored?

I'd be mad too, looks like you've gotten lots of good advise here on the board. I'll need to remember these tips too.

I used the same three fabrics to make a quillow for my cousin's dad who has cancer. When I read this post, I called her to ask if she had washed it (I did when I finished it and it didn't come loose)and if the seams came loose. She said yes she had washed it and no it didn't come loose. Maybe you got some from a bad batch.

Could you couch a yarn over the seams that are frying? this will hide the glue a little and provide some stability where the fray it. I would test this on scraps first to be sure it wouldn't add additional stress to that fabric and encourage more fraying! Good luck!

Best suggestion is to use a wide zig-zag stitch over all the seams using that fabric using a matching thread. For future, to avoid this problem, make sure all fabric you buy for your quilts is decent quality thread count. You check this by looking at the back of the fabric and seeing how close together the threads are. If they are not close together, don't use it, it will wear out. Step 2 is to make sure the stitch length on your machine is set at 2 - 2.5 setting, or 10-12 stitches per inch. If your stitching is too big on your piecing, it is more likely to fall apart.