Here is a confession of what caused my puckers. A group of us ladies were starting a quilting group. We had no clue what we were doing and they put me in charge.UGHHHHHH so I researched and read and found thins to start with. Most of us worked and we met at night and truthfully, I'm not worth spit after 4PM. So, we decided to do reat bit quilt. To save time, we folded the material and cut strips. Let me tell you, those strips were as crooked as a dog's hind leg. For sure. We almost had chevrons and zig zags. So, make sure you fabric is steamed flat befoe cutting. This is my contribution......sorry if it sounds lame, but I'm not the sharpest pencil in the box.

Blessings,
Ruth

I hear that spray basting is a good technique to use. I think that if you find a solid surface, tape your backing down taunt to your solid surface, lightly spray your batting down, and then lightly spray your top in place... pin and sew.

I am a "long-arm-er" but I have learned this technique and have been successful with it in the past. Good luck!

3 words: starch, starch, starch! Starching the backing fabric stabilizes it. Heavy starching makes it almost impossible for the backing fabric to form a pucker.

Here's my method for heavily starching backing fabric (for machine quilting). Mix a 1:1 solution of Sta-Flo liquid laundry starch and water. "Paint" the solution on the fabric with a large wall-painting brush until fabric is saturated. Throw fabric in dryer. Iron with steam. The fabric comes out with about the stiffness of a piece of thin cardstock.

I use the same method when cutting bias strips.

Works great for me!

I was going to say starch but Prism already said it once or twice! LOL :lol:

I use warm and natural batting and then when I wash it, the puckers don't show cuz the whole thing has that nice wrinkley look to it! :mrgreen: :twisted:

I will follow this thread and read all of the comments

I stretch the backing nice and taut and then I tape it down with blue painter's tape. I smooth the batting (warm and natural) down over the backing. Then I lay the top down and I pat it from tbe center outward to get a nice, smooth sandwich. Generally, I pin about hand=width apart. My last quilt did not have a single pucker and I did SID in both directions.

You aren't the only one that has ended up with zig-zag strips. Hope the next ones go better.

Thanks for the starch suggestion. I was just thinking about asking the same question. I will certainly try the Sta-Flo painting technique. That sounds like the skirts we used to wear in the 50's.

I spent the past 3 days doing reversible sewing ie. ripping. I had my tension too tight on the machine. I knew it but did nothing. My first attempt at machine quilting. I am now hand quilting. When this quilt is quilted my next project is 4 place mats and they will be machine quilted. I will do it.