Long Arm question - controlling fullness
 

Hi, I don't do quilting for hire, but do quilt for friends and family. From this board, I've learned how to handle fullness in a border, but what do you do with a wavy block or center? I'm doing a top for a friend. Don't have the top yet, but saw it last week. It's a 60" throw, 48" pieced center, 6" borders. The center has about 1.5" to 2" that was eased into the border.
Other than having her take the borders off (new quilter, thrilled with top, not much border fabric left) any suggestions? I was going to use warm & natural and was thinking of putting a piece of fluffy poly just in the center.
I was also going to see if I could just quilt the border and have her tie the center...

I would try putting a piece of poly under the fullness to see if that helps.

You have the right idea with the batting. Hopefully the quilting you do before you get to the block will draw it in some.

In the past I have used canned vegetables on either side of my needle to control fullness. I believe I actually read the tip on this forum. My cans are now so dented that I worried about leaking. I told a friend this trick and she uses the small water bottles. That seems a little safer however they are not quite as heavy and sometimes I need the weight of my vegetable cans. This works quite well.

I was going to suggest quilting with a larger motif with lots of separation, easing the fullness into the areas as you quilt across them.

Plus, when the quilt is washed - with the fullness 'spread' around, it probably won't even be noticeable!

a quick session with some steam might help too. I think someone (sharon Schamber?) uses soup cans to put tension on the fabric. That helps even it out. I cannot find a link, but will post here if I can find it. Ditto what Crashnquilt said about the batting.

you can add a layer of Hobbs polydown or something similar in the middle then quilt the quilt and it will sink in and absorb most of the fullness, no need to have her tie the center.

There's an article by Kim Brunner in the latest issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited called Taming an Unruly Quilt - Eliminating Fullness in Blocks and Borders. She talks about this problem and how to deal with it. I just scanned through the article (but will read it in more detail later). She didn't use extra batting, but she did anchor with pins, smooth the top out carefully, take care in loading, emphasized keeping the lines of the quilt straight. I learn a lot from each issue of this magazine and highly recommend it for longarmers especially.

I use Sharon Schamber's rice bags...1 wash cloth sewn with large 2 in seam on the OUTSIDE, fill with rice , sew ends shut, opening seam as you go. The large seam serves as a handle, bags are malleable, can be shaped a bit to really sit where you need the weight.

And after weighting each side of the offending square, I try to determine the middle of the block, pin, determine the point midway between edge and center, pin again....keep splitting the fullness in half and then use a design or panto that is a bit 'open'...that allows it to evenly distribute the fullness so it doesn't pleat anywhere...