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I was reading a blog and the woman was talking about making scrappy strip quilts....her specialty....you know the ones where you cut all the fabrics by width of fabric and just arrange them in rows. She said the way she conquers the bowing of the strips is by sewing the strips by twos....and then sewing the 2-strip sections together...and then the 8-strip sections. Apparently she says that by having 2 strips sewn, it stabilizes the fabric and you don't have to do that right to left and left to right sewing. It's worth a shot.
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This has happened to me as well when I first starting quilting. It was a patriotic quilt and the red and white strips were a mess. I did not know this method at the time so I could not figure out what I did wrong. It's good that you learned this now and beat the frustration.
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I guess I've not come across it before out of sheer luck. Definitely making a mental note on this one.
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Originally Posted by woohoowendy
I think after cutting the thread, pressing, going downstairs to get coffee, answering the phone, picking up scraps off the floor . . . . . I will SURELY forget which direction I was sewing when sewing a whole bunch of strips.
Does anyone have an easy method for remembering which direction you sewed each strip? Should I just use a perm. marker to mark an arrow in the seam allowance at the start of each strip? Or maybe there's an even easier solution . . . . please post any ideas. Thanks! |
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Originally Posted by mpeters1200
That is so weird. Are there any ideas about why this happens?
I have a project going where I'll only need 3 strips, but it's something I can practice on since I have to make 13 sets of the 3 strips. I have never heard of that before. I'm hoping with 13 strip sets I can hammer out a way to try and keep all that together. I've always sewn them in one direction so they are all even on one side. That just seems so weird to me. Proper handling for straight stitching [ATTACH=CONFIG]190882[/ATTACH] |
What I do is leave the beginning tails long and then I know which direction I started sewing. After I am done I clip all the tails. Easiest way I know to keep track.
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mpeters1200====thanks for bringing this topic to the forum. Once again, I've been educated. I learn so much from this group.
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I didn't know that, learn something new everyday.
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Originally Posted by amyjo
When I sew like that I take the 1st strip and sew a straight stitch across the corner on the outside. Then I always alternate sewing the strips on. No problems then. You can always pulll that stitch out when you are done.
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The fabric stretches a little bit each time you sew a row. If you keep starting from the same end each time, the stretch will be multiplied by the number of strips you are sewing. This will cause the material to swerve in one direction. In order to counteract this, you should sew each row in an alternate direction and it will stay more square. You should do this when you are sewing multiple quilting rows or lattice patterns as well.Hope explanation is clear - all the best with your project.
If I take a break, I generally put a small safety pin at the end of the las row that was sewn and I know to sew in the opposite direction from there. |
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