Oh, dear. It's a mess!
 

I've finished my quilt top with 3 borders and basted it together. Then I discovered that the borders do not lie flat. They matched up beautifully while sewing them on, but there is no way to "quilt that out!" The corners are mitered, so putting them back together after unsewing and correcting is daunting. The quilt is nearly king sized, so I had no surface large enough to see the extra bulk. I guess the weight of the quilt pulled it flat. Any ideas on correcting those mitered corners now that they have been trimmed?

Is there a floor surface that you could lay the whole thing or or at least lay out one side at a time completely? I would be tempted to lay it out, pin or tape it down to the size it is supposed to be, spray the border area with water and let it dry. It may just shrink enough that you can quilt it more easily.

I had a similar situation but didn't catch it till it was on the frame and almost completely quilted. So I made pleats where it was too full as I couldn't steam out the fullness though I tried. I was able to put the pleats so the quilting pattern would stitch right down the edge and catch it. No one was the wiser unless I showed them.

I agree with Suz (Snooz). I have had a few come across my rack that there was no way the fullness would quilt out. So with the client's permission, I put in several very strategically placed tucks/pleats and quilted over them. It probably would not pass muster with a show judge but it certainly looked fine to everyone else. My client couldn't find them without me pointing them out. Here, look for yourself. There are two of them in this picture.
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Pleats hide pretty well - if you keep them straight, they end up just looking almost exactly like ordinary seams.

Edit - I posted this before seeing Feline Fanatic's picture. That's exactly what I was trying to describe. :)

If you've already unsewn (is that a word?) the mitered corners, would it work to lie one side flat and carefully miter the new corner by hand. I've had to do that before to make bits fit together better.

Great quilting! I, too, have had to do some creative quilting to hide fullness. Small tucks are sometimes necessary and once quilted, you are hard pressed to find them. A little fullness will settle down with no tucks, but a lot of fullness may require little tucks. Good luck!

Nicely done Feline Fanataic. Did you measure your borders?? You might want to watch EB video on miter borders. I never trimmed my miter borders until I had pinned my queen size quilts. Then I just unpinned the corners and trimmed them when I knew that everything was okay. I would always have one border come out a bit off and having my quilts in competition, I had to fix the problem.

Is the extra fullness in the miter only or the entire border is wavy? If it's just the miter, the fullness should mean too much fabric there, so up sewing, re mitering should correct...if it's the whole border with scattered waves....I would take out, measure, pin and resew, but that's me....otherwise it would always haunt me.......

If it is the entire border, quilting a piano key is a good way to distribute fullness and if you need to take a tuck it is well hidden. If it's really bad, you can quilt the main portion of the quilt, then add an additional layer of batting in the border area.

I've had to do that a couple of times and it turned out fine. Maybe wouldn't pass the judging cause they really really look things over but then maybe not. You go with what you want. When I go to a quilt show, I don't look for flaws rather the overall look of the quilt.

Thanks to you all. I've never had an issue like this before. It's just a quilt for our own bed, but it's so discouraging after making this huge quilt top and doing all that pin basting to discover the two long side borders are wavy. I will try your suggestions as best I can -- I'm pretty new to machine quilting. You're a wonderful group!

Luckily, you discovered this before sandwiching. You have the opportunity to fix it properly now. l advise you to do so...you won't be sorry. Leaving it may cause regret. Next time...sew first border with the pieced part on top ( we usually sew small strips at top & large pieces under...but that causes the problem).Better yet, sew the 3 borders together as a strip first before adding to quilt ( with pieced center on top & border underneath) .

I'm thinking that you may have measured the borders to fit the edges of the quilt. If you measure the borders to fit through the center of the quilt you will work in the excess that may exist in the edges because of stretching and just variances in the piece. This way you solve the problem before you get to the finishing. Works very well for me.

I would not have known and only thought it was suppose to be with the print matching superbly. Would love to see phot of this in its entirety.

I had a wavy border show up after I had it quilted up to that point....uh-oh. What I did was: Undid the border to quilt seam from the middle towards the end. I didn't have to take it all the way off. Then I laid it back against the quilt, determined how much of the border was excess, I had enough to make a seam so I cut the border, removed the excess, seamed it back up and sewed it back on the quilt. There was some trick positioning around the machine but my border looked absolutely normal. I have no explanation as to how/where the excess came from because the quilt ended up being even. Just one of my mysteries of quilting....lol

Have had to take a seam in a couple of quilts I've done with wavey borders.

On a king size bargello I made for son's wedding, the borders where 10" wide and mitered (a free Jenny Beyer pattern)--she had you put all borders together first and then miter. worked fine that way. Also, borders cut from length of grain tend to stretch less---don't do many mitered borders, but any time I do borders that are 3.5" or more I always cut them length of grain--seems to help prevent waves.

Unfortunately, due to the size, I did NOT notice this until after basting the sandwich. Not having a large enough area to see the whole quilt top at once was part of the problem with seeing my error in time.

I always cut mine with the straight of grain, and only the corners are mitered with any bias. I think I measured incorrectly, using the edge of the quilt, rather than the way Sprice menitioned. Thanks to everyone for thinking through so many reasons for this happening to being with, and for thinking of creative ways to correct it!

I say ditto here....

I agree with Tartan to try and mist the fabric to see if it will shrink up some. If it does not you can try the thicker batting and do a piano key border. This will help take up the excess fabric distributing it evenly. Good luck.

Since I only quilt with my DSM. If I notice any places that have excess fabric I make the FMQ a bit larger. Try not to get too close to any other stitching.
Never that problem with my borders. I never make mitered corners on my borders.

How about if you leave the mitered corners alone along with a few inches on either side and just rip out the rest, adjust to fit flat, and sew a seam or put in a single pleat along the long edges?