Ok, now that I have your attention... :lol:

It seems like every time I cut strips from my fabric, they end up bowed! :evil: I am really careful about matching my selvages when I wash and press and then when I press the strips open. They bow right in the middle, where the fabric is folded. Any suggestions? Anyone know what I might be doing wrong? Thanks in advance!

That is the same reason I cut my strips lengthwise. Most the quilting instructions tell you to cut width wise. There is a way to do it so that it doesn't have that elbow, but ever few strips you have to restraighten it, so I save myself the hassle and just do it lengthwise. Maybe someone else can help you better.

I don't know if I can tell you a better way - but I can tell you what I do... I make sure the fabric is ironed folded in half just one time... I make sure it's ironed tight - a very good crease... then I fold it in half again and iron it down again... very rarely now do I have bowed strips...

I have done it this way too, but I still seem to get the bows. I have even tried it by just folding the fabric once with a good iron and it still happens :(

the problem might be the fold isn't at a 90 degree angle with the cut.

When you put your selvedges together do you make sure the fold is straight? If it doesn't hang in a straight U you don't have it folded straight. Make sure your second fold is also straight. Then you have to make sure your ruler is at 90 degrees to the fold.

I had that problem, too. Then someone told me to pin the edges when I had them perfectly line up. Now I fold, pin, starch, iron. It takes time but it seems to help me. Every time I think I'm getting good enough to skip the pins, I mess up and get banana strips.

We just covered this problem at our quilt meeting last night.

when you fold your fabric selvage to selvage are you trying to match the cut edge of the fabric??????? Well you shouldn't as it may not have been cut straight at the fabric store.........

Make sure the selvage edges match and that there are no bows and that the fabric hangs straight........ don't worry if the cut edge doesn't match.
even the cut edge............ then cut your strip....... works every time.

Hope it works for you.

Scrap Quilter

When you match up the selvages you have to make sure where the fold is that it is laying straight. If there are wrinkles in it you will have to move one selvage end to the left or right to fix it and then iron. Then match the fold to selvage same way and iron. I asked this question a little over a year ago and learned quickly.

Kyia :D

Matching selvedges actually has nothing to do with cutting straight strips. Straight strips depend on the fold line being exactly 90 degrees to the cutting ruler. To ensure this, I use a large ruler on the fold line, matching a line on the ruler exactly to the fold. I then butt my cutting ruler against the first ruler. (The edge of the large ruler will be exactly 90 degrees from the lines on the large ruler.) Any variation away from 90 degrees will cause a bow at the fold line.