Please help with evil quilt!
 

I am TRYING to make a dwr quilt and am having so much trouble!! I just can not get my football shapes to lay flat. My points sometimes line up, but often do not. I have ripped, ripped, and ripped. I used the accuquilt Go and double checked my 1/4 inch seams and they are accurate, so I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. I think i am just not experienced enough to make this pattern. I was going to make a large throw, but now just want to finish this EVIL quilt so I thought maybe i could do less rings and add a border! Does anyone know of any tutorials or suggestions that can teach/show me how to add the borders to the scalloped rings? Thanks

I feel for you Aunt...I had an evil bunny quilt that gave me nothing but trouble. I have resigned to stuff not lining up :)

Have you pressed your fabric and rechecked the size and shape of your pieces after you do all the ripping out? It sounds like you might be stretching something in the process.

Most likely you are stretching the edges of your football shapes as you work with them. These will be mostly on the bias, which is much more prone to stretching than straight-of-grain cuts.

Did you prewash your fabric? If so, did you starch the fabric before cutting? Starching adds stability to the fabric so bias edges are less likely to stretch. Typically you want to starch before cutting the shapes.

If your shapes are already cut, try spray starching the shapes and iron them dry. (Iron by pressing down. Do not iron back and forth, as you can distort the fabric by doing that.) I would give each side of each shape at least one coat of spray starch and allow that to dry before sewing.

DWR was on my bucket. A very small table runner was enough. Check that one off!

DWR is definitely advanced!

Lol! I am SURE I am stretching the fabric after all the ripping and resewing! But, I am going soooo slow and trying to be careful not to stretch but no matter what I do, they are still wonky. I am using batiks, and did not prewash but did check to see if any bleed. I have already pieced all the arcs and melons and they lay nice and flat but when i add the longer arc to make the football, everything goes wrong. I will try to starch the longer arc to see if that helps. THANKS!

Did you clip? Sometimes it helps to clip curves.

Thank you for all your suggestions! But, nothing works. I give up! I honestly just think I'm not experienced or skilled enough to make this pattern. So.... I hate this quilt and need to move on but i cant leave it unfinished. Sadly I don't know how to add a straight border to make it larger so does anyone have any links that will show me how to do this? Thank again for all your help!! Mary

Check out Ebony Love on Lovebugstudio...She has a you tube video showing how to make a DWR.
Hope this helps.

Look up DWR bed runners. They are the width of the bed but sit across the foot instead of covering the entire bed.

Here is an example from Keepsake that will give you an idea. Only two rows of rings...

http://www.keepsakequilting.com/productdetail/6382.htm

Good luck! I am hoping to make one of these some day - but now perhaps I will move it down the list a bit until I am better at all skills!!!