What am I doing wrong????
 

I've finished quilting a T-shirt quilt on my longarm and have a discrepancy in the border measurement. How can this happen when the borders are measured, cut precisely, pinned into place before being sewn on; the top is basted in place on the quilting frame, but when I finished quilting, took the quilt off the frame, and went to square it up, I ended up with almost a 3/8 to 1/2 inch gap on one side for about 8 inches along one side. To resolve the problem, I can cut away another 1/2 inch of border on each side before I add the binding, but I'd like to avoid this issue next time. Any ideas or advice is appreciated!

I can't help with the question but I'll be waiting for the answer with you.
Rodney

This sometimes happens to me. I have just started to make my last border about 1 inch wider all the way around. I think it may have something to do with how even the tension is when we roll the top and backing on the frame. This is just a guess on my part. Good thing I only quilt for myself. LOL

This happen to me on a table runner I was making. Waiting to hear what others have to say.

Ditto Gramie bj..... I have the same issues too. I believe that we pull the top as we are quilting and rolling it. This could cause the top to start moving out because so much of it is cut on width of fabric which is stretchy, and me pulling the top to keep it straight. I float my tops which might also, cause the problem. I am going to try cutting all my borders along the length of the selvedge, called straight grain of fabric, which is much more stable and not nearly as stretchy as WOF, to see if this could stop the stretching from happening. I noticed on the last two quilts I quilted, that the stretching occurred in the last 1/4 of one side.

A lot of quilters baste the quilt down the sides before they start quilting, I just pin. My older Nolting does not have a lock so my side basting isn't as straight as I would like it to be.

I hope an expert answers this so we will all know what the real solution is.

Quilts have a way of moving around on the frame! As you quilt, it causes certain areas to be drawn up, depending on the density of the quilting. One way to avoid this is to measure from the center of the quilt to the edges every time you roll the quilt on the frame...if the quilt is 90" wide, you want each side to measure 45" from the center, pin it and quilt the edge of the quilt down in a ~ pattern (this allows you to suck up a little extra fabric if you need to without getting a tuck). I measure and pin about every 6", then baste it down so I can keep the quilt square. I know that by the time I get to the bottom border, it always has a bit of "fluff" because the rest of the quilt is quilted and has shrunk up just enough to make the bottom border a challenge.

Barb, I don't use my channel locks for basting the sides - use an S shape and that will allow you to fudge in a bit of fluffiness in the border, if necessary, without tucks. If you really want to do a straight stitch to baste the sides, you can easily use clamps on either side of your carriage wheels :)

I would assume it has something to do with the quilting taking and moving more at one end to the other.
At least it was retrievable . Looks a lovely quilt in the corner.

That problem alone is the reason I use the centering tape on my frame. It keeps me from pulling it too tight at one end and not enough at the other. It keeps everything nice and square. I've never had that problem again. I swear by this tape! It's the pink tape that runs across the quilt in the picture. It has little points that I line up with the sashings. You can see it up-close in the other picture. Two different quilts, but you get the drift!

I have this problem too sometimes. Now when I put on borders, I keep in mind that I might have to sacrifice a bit of fabric and determine how big the borders should be based on that knowledge.

I really think a lot about just admitting that I don't like this part of the process and selling my longarm...

Don't give up, Nilla! It's all a learning game, for sure. You didn't sell your sewing machine when a quilt didn't turn out right, did you? And thank goodness you didn't! It's all about learning from your mistakes - we all go through it, you're not alone!! You will love to learn this process. Seriously.

not to fret, even us old quilters make mistakes

What a clever idea Cindi !! I use to quilt my quilts on my Bernina. I used one of those long measuring vinyl tapes (120")to make sure everything was square. But I also cut my border a tiny bit wider just to be able to adjust to any small errors.

JJ

wow, that looks like a really nifty tool. i'll have to remember that when i get my next frame

I saw another thing you did which was to pin a lot more closer when going down the sides than I have been doing. I have been pinning every 3 or 4 inches. I'm thinking that is leaving too much slack. I have been tending to work the "fluff" (love that word) out by pulling the corner to stretch it, when I should have been easing it in. All the seams inside the quilt tend to not let the middle stretch at all, so only the side borders can stretch, which is another part of the whole equation.

The measuring tape you are using...is it a special one that fits your frame, or just a really long one that you hook on? I am very good at eye-balling it to keep the quilt straight and have been measuring from one side just to verify. I didn't think about keeping the whole quilt straight by measuring all the points. I just love learning something new about my quilting every day and I do. Thank you for these two great tips.

The measuring tape is called Colonial Longarm Centering Tape. You can get it at a lot of LQS's and a lot of places have it online. Here it is at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Needl.../dp/B0016ZZMZ6

I do pin very close. It really helps when I baste the top and sides down. The more pins I use, the less fullness I have to worry about. I pull out one pin at a time, as I come to it. I'd rather over-pin and be able to work in any "fluff" (love that word, too!) than to have tucks from not pinning enough.

Thanks to everyone for advice and support. Thanks to Cindi for providing the link for the 'tape'. Working on another quilt this afternoon and will do better this time.

So many great tips from this board. I use a lot of pins and was informed it wasn't necessary. Why go to all that work? Because it's worth it! Mine was a small quilt!

Exactly! It's definitely worth it. I'd rather get it right the first time than to have to frog, that's for sure!!

Leggz
From what I can see on my computer screen the only thing you may be doing wrong is over obsessing about something that is totally notmal. Anything less than an inch off the line is usually insignificant, especially with a solid color border as wide as you have. Just straighten up the edge and bind as usual. Once it is washed it will all even out. Just don't talk about it to anyone. If it is not glaringly noticable people don't need to know the details.

Thanks for the information cindi....I think I need one of these

The other thing you can do until you get your tape is if you have the clamps for the bars (not the side clamps, the plastic C shaped ones) use those to mark where borders are and such and then you can scoot (think light cat scratches on a scratching post) the fabric around to where it needs to be to remain square before basting it down. I'll try to remember to take a pick later today.

Thank you for your idea and pictures.

I love you for this post!!!

Thank you for the post about the centering tape, it's just what I need for my lay out table.