What causes this?
 

I'm a fairly new quilter. This is my 4th quilt. I pieced this one a couple of weeks ago. I have not quilted one before.

I watched three or four classes (free!) on Craftsy yesterday getting ready to quilt this one. I starched and pressed this today. It is not flat - parts are stretchy and the charms are "poufy". It will definitely be hard to quilt without puckers in it.

I received the charms in a swap. They should have been washed. I did not wash the sashing fabric, but it seems that should not have caused a problem at this time (maybe later though). I may have cut part of the sashing on the width and the other on the length of the grain. Could that be it? Is it my tension?

I'd really like to cure this problem.

bkay

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Did you sashing fabric shrink when you pressed it after the block was sewn? I had that happen with a RJR fabric. Made a confirmed prewasher out of me. I was able to stretch the strips back out by pressing with steam. Then I hurried to quilt it.
Cute fabrics in your charms.

Try spray starch on your puffy blocks and press. Sometimes this will "shrink" the fabric to workable stage for quilting.

yep, press well with steam, blocking as you go. then spray starch and press. that will get it as straight as it can get. Have fun.

Sounds like just piecing (sewing and cutting) inaccuracies. I think it looks pretty good for a fourth quilt! But there's always room for improvement. May I suggest a book by Sally Collins called The Art of Machine Piecing? It has improved my piecing skills tremendously, and I have only adopted a few of her suggestions. I took an all day workshop with her once, and it was the best money I ever spent on a class.

I'm going to suggest that when you pressed and starched after piecing, the larger surface of the charms allowed for a little extra stretching. The narrow strips are bordered by seams, so there was not as much opportunity for the strips to stretch like the charms could.
If it were mine, I would lay the quilt top out on a flat surface, maybe even a clean floor if you don't have room on the counter or a table, and spray the whole thing down with a water mist. Let it dry naturally, and the charms should shrink back up to flat.
Then if you choose to press it again after it is dry, be very careful that you don't stretch the fabric while it is softened by steam or starch.

What does "blocking as you go" mean?

I sprayed the top with spray starch and then steam ironed it. Was that the wrong order?

bkay

I love how the gray setting fabric sets off your charms. I think you'll be surprised at how nice that will look when it's quilted and washed. The advice that "It will quilt out" is quite true of most little imperfections in quilts. Batting that is all or mostly cotton will shrink a bit when the quilt is washed, guaranteeing a certain amount of puffiness, and it seems to me that's the goal in making a quilt for warmth and comfort as well as eye appeal.

A lot of people advise against steam because it can cause some distortion, but on the other hand it's used by Eleanor Burns and quite a lot of accomplished quilters. It's probably more important not to pull and tug at the fabric when you use the iron and to lift and press the iron rather than shoving it around. It's also important when sandwiching the quilt to lay it firmly enough to be straight and neat, but to not yank it in a way that might distort it. All that sort of thing you will gradually get a feel for as you go along. I have a hunch that the weight of the top as you hung it on the vertical design wall may be contributing to the unevenness that I'm seeing and that it may not do that when it's horizontal - perhaps on the floor, if you can't find a table large enough to work on.

What style of quilting are you planning to do? If you have a walking foot, a simple wavy design back and forth starting in the middle of one side and working out to the sides (switching direction for each pass) would probably be the easiest approach. If you want to try free motion, there's a lot of help on youtube, such as this video by Patsy Thompson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39I5A3iyCtw. Probably you want to get something like an old sheet (with the same kind of batting you plan to use) and create some (lots!) small practice sandwiches before you tackle the real quilt.

I hope you'll show us the quilt when it's done. I'm sure it will be delightful.

Gnome, thanks for the suggestion. I think it helped. I'm determined to finish this one as I have accumulated way too many UFOs for my short career in quilting.

Rose, thanks for your suggestions. I've messed with the photo and have come to the conclusion something like this is the best option. Since it's my first quilt to quilt, I thought I'd stick with a walking foot and a simple pattern this time. I have a second I spy quilt top that I just finished and was planning the diagonal on it.

I tried all manner of orange peel designs and could not get one that worked to give me close enough quilting without a lot of marking and measuring on the top. With either of these, I can use the points of the squares and then come back and fill in one line between. I think that will give me enough quilting to keep it together after many washes.

Do you think one or the other would look better on this quilt. I plan to use a gray thread, 30 wt. with the hope that my mistakes will not be noticed.

Even if you were doing one of these plans, would you start in the center?

bkay
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