I guess I have to learn everything the hard way - but can it be fixed?
 

I'm working on a quilt top which features a 22"x40"middle panel, surrounded by six pieced borders. I noticed during this journey that, as I attached one border after the other, my center panel seemed a little not flat anymore. It wasn't too bad at first, but by the time the next-to-last border was attached, the center panel was noticeably less flat - not wrinkled, but less taut. So I ironed it. With steam. Then I tried to smooth it out some more by hand. Then it occurred to me that everything I was doing to try to fix it was making it worse.

I would appreciate any ideas as to how I could handle this and make the panel taut. Starch it and use a dry iron on it? I am at a loss.

I took some photos, but they don't show the problem very well. You can sort of see it at the top corners of the panel. It really isn't that bad - but is this going to be a problem for my long arm quilter?

PS: I know I have some wavy borders, which is really disappointing. Again, not too bad a problem, but for the first time ever I didn't just sew a long piece on and trim off the overage, but rather I measured, pinned six ways from Sunday, and took care not to stretch the borders when I sewed them on. And they're wavy.

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I can only see that the very outer border is wavy. But you're saying the center panel doesn't lay flat?

How did you measure the outermost border?

I would block the quilt top. This involves a large flat surface you can pin into and spray starch or water. Sharon s chamber has some YouTube videos on blocking blocks, but you can also block a quilt top or even a finished quilt in a similar manner. Carpeting can work as your flat surface.

How did you measure for the borders? Did you measure through the center of the quilt each time? I don't think the problem is with the black border strips. I think it is the other borders that are causing the waviness. It looks as if you had to match the corners and that there is extra fabric in-between the corners that are creating fullness.

A couple of years ago I made a Wizard of Oz with a panel in the center. As I built the rows around the center I realized that the center wasn't laying straight. It was puffy. I should have stopped at that point and ironed some fusible interfacing on the back to keep the panel from stretching but I didn't. I continued to finish the quilt and the center is still puffy. If I were you, I would use fusible interfacing on the back of the panel.

Spray dampen the top, then toss it in the dryer to dry. It will shrink back to size.

My guess is that one of the borders is too short and you stretched the center to fit. But I have been wrong many times.

The pattern specified each border length, so I cut them to that length. And each one fit, which amazed me. I tried very hard to measure and cut accurately. �� I still have the 5-1/2" outer border to attach. For that one, the directions are to measure through the quilt middle and cut the border to that length.

That is a good idea.

I have no help to offer, but I wanted to tell you that this is going to be one beautiful quilt!

Dina

There is something wrong with that last thin black border. If you measure through the middle of the quilt and cut to fit, my guess is that you will need to make tucks in that thin black border. Better to fix the thin black border first, if you can.

definitely do like Prism99 says about the black border (and maybe that last one show in your picture--I'm thinking the blue/white/turquoise one is the problem) if you don't correct that, the last border will be wavy too--which could result in your long arm quilter either asking if you want to fix it first, or she could take a tuck in it--but it's so pretty I'd had to do that myself. I'm not seeing a wave or bag in the panel. I think panels can be tricky because they often aren't straight of grain when we cut them out.