Need help with wavy borders
 

I need help with a wavy border, I have the quilt sandwiched and tied. I am a relatively new quilter and I have always measured my borders before sewing them on, a well-meaning friend said she never did and just sewed them on and then cut off the extra length. WRONG! I now have a wavy border and wonder if there is anything i can do to salvage the quilt. The border now measures 3.5 inches. I have tried hand quilting on the border but that wasn't any good, I also cut about 1 inch off, still no good. If someone out there has done the same thing and found a way to correct it, I'd be very interested.

Having read the board for several months, I know there are plenty of smart quilters out there and I am thankful for any advice you can give.

i should mention that I am self taught and have learned much from experience!

Is all of the excess fabric in the quilt top? If so, you could remove ties near the edges and carefully sew darts into the edge of the quilt top (similar to bust darts on garment sewing). This assumes you haven't done the binding yet.

I had that happen to me once....the fold was a bit too deep to be "quilted out." What I did was fold it over and quilted the heck out of it, It helped the print was very busy, and it didn't matter. In your case, it appears you are tying the quilt, right? What you can do is whipstich over the folded edge with tiny, tiny stitches. Or you can fold it down and applique something pretty over it and repeat the applique in a few more places so that it looks done on purpose. Good luck!

I think this would work. In fact it should work very well. Wish I had thought of it on my first quilt...

Dina

I have not even cut off excess backing and batting. Just keep looking at it and shaking my head! Going to try your suggestion. Back is just fine so should be able to hand stitch darts. Thank you so much for the info

I know things are bulky, but if you haven't done any tying into the border area yet and if this bothers you a lot, why not take the border off, measure, and put it back on with the batting and backing folded out of the way during sewing?

I would take the borders off. You have to measure the quilt in 3 places then take an average and cut it to that size then either ease the border or the quilt to fit the border.

Addition to the above post. When you get an average of the 3 measurements of the quilt you cut the borders to that size not the quilt lol

I always measure across the center of the quilt. Vertical, and horizontal, and use those measurements to cut my border.
Works everytime.

:oI want to thank you all for your great ideas. I am going to try to fix with darts and then consider it a great learning experience.

Thanks for the sewing lesson! Wish I would have asked first.

Have you seen jennie rayment's fiddling.? Make a( shape and roll edge same place in every edge and make it look like a desig.

The reason this works:

When you measure the at edge of the quilt, there will ALWAYS be a bit of stretching, sometimes more than at other times, depending on the grain of fabric. Measuring through the center of the quilt works because the quilt is more stable here than at the edges. When you just sew a long strip onto the edge of the quilt without measuring, both the edge of the quilt AND the border stretch, causing a noticable "ripple" effect.

Therefore, when you cut a border strip the measurement you take through the center of the quilt, the border will be the same length as the quilt itself. Usually, you will have to do a minimal amount of easing of the quilt edge to the border. I always put the border strip on top of the quilt as I'm sewing the two together. The feed dogs will assist the easing process.

Same here. I don't mess around with measuring 3 places and take the average. The center will give you the "true" measurement and using that will assue you a nice square quilt top for quilting.

AND remember--done is always better than perfect! 8^) you could also stitch a line of running stitches down the outside of the border and draw it up/in, evenly distributing the waves so that it lies flat.

Welcome to the been there done that club!!! It is the best way to learn.

I measure the center of the quilt to get my measurement and then i PIN it to make sure that it all gets eased in if necessary.

I would also take the border off, measure across the center and resew. It will be a little tedious because you have to keep the batting and backing out of the way but I think it will be worth it.

actually I would take off the borders and this time measure first it will be more satisfactory to you and would probably take less time than trying to make it look good