I've never had this problem before, but my boarder is wavy. I already took it off and made sure the quilt top was perfectly square and then added those boarders. There are still ripples in them. Is there any way to quilt this. I really don't want to keep taking it apart. Oh and I did measure the middle of the quilt to get my boarder measurements.

You can use a batting with a little more loft and add an extra layer of batting to the borders. A batting like Hobbs heirloom has a little bit of loft that helps disguise wavyness. Next time make sure you sew with the quilt top on the bottom and not the borders. Unless you are using an even feed foot of some kind the feed dogs tend to ease in the bottom layer just a bit.

I was wondering about the batting...if I could use a higher loft. I will try that.

I always cut my top & bottom and then 2 side borders exactly the same length. And then I pin each border starting at ends, center, etc. This helps keep any blocks from stretch out as the border is added.

or do a running stitch all the way around the pieced top before adding the borders this will help it from stretching when you add the borders..

Borders and I do not get along. I usually glue baste them on first starting from each end going to the middle, easing as I go. There is a neat trick I saw on QnnTV about overlapping the wave at the seam line and it can't be seen. I've used that method for big quilt borders. Also I learned to sew all the borders together and then having only one big border to sew around the quilt instead sewing them separately on the quilt.

how could you sew the border on in one piece?

Maybe she means binding? I've noticed a lot of people seem to say one when they mean the other.

Wavy borders are a ongoing problem with quilting. This is the way I do mine. I measure thru the middle and both sides, than average those measurements. I repeat this process for the top and bottom. I also sew the borders on with the border strip on the top. The bottom layer of fabric always gets gathered in a bit no matter how well you pin. Another clue is to, when possible, cut your borders from the length of your fabric, there is less stretch than the width. Hope this helps someone.

Did you measure across the center of your top to get the border measurement? It makes a difference. If you cut to the size of the edge, ruffles are a possibility. I usually mark the center and quarter points along the edge and align my borders with those. That way I can ease any fullness or stretch any shortness evenly across the entire length.

The running stitch around the whole quilt sounds like an easy enough thing to do, if it maybe stop the stretching. Going to try today, have to start adding a couple of borders to the quilt I am working on. Thanks for that bit of advice.

I usually do not do this but if I have a concern it will stretch when I add it I will. I do measure across the center and edges and find average. Then find center of border and pin to center of edge etc. It does work!

I'm somewhat of a perfectionist & to help assure the quilt will come out better, I always cut the 2 sides & top & bottom borders the exact same length. I use the 12 1/2" square ruller to make sure my corners are squared when trimming off the extra backing & batting in preparation for binding.

I meant if I have two or three borders I sew them all together first then only have one border to sew on the quilt. It's easier to miter all of the borders that way too.

I'm having a similar problem. I got a QFK kit and put it all together. When I went to sandwich it, I found that one of the borders wasn't cut right. It's narrower in one spot than the others (apparently that strip of fabric was cut crooked) and the way it's sewed on, the non-straight side was stitched to the quilt. So there's waviness. I'm debating whether to rip out the border and turn it around so the straighter side is sewn on but then I'll have to remove part of the top and bottom borders as well. At any rate I'll have to trim down all 4 borders because of this and the quilt won't be the right size but I don't have any of the same fabric and there's not much else I can do.

have had a tottering time with one this morning--------going to use it for a trash can cover due to mess up--------the ladies on live chat really helped me out of mass depression

Have you tried to steam your border? There was a hint in the APQS site about doing this to shrink your borders. They use starch and steam.