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Originally Posted by Scissor Queen

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Originally Posted by jaciqltznok

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Originally Posted by Scissor Queen

One of the worst ones I've ever heard is to sew the border on with the border next to the feed dogs. That's almost a guarantee for wavy borders.

you mean keep the border fabric ON TOP of the quilt when sewing it on?

Yup. Unless you're using a walking foot or even feed foot the feed dogs will slightly ease in the bottom fabric. "Bag the bottom" and "bias on the bottom" are old sewing sayings for a reason.

ok I'll bite what does bag the bottom mean?

Always make bias binding. Did once, but switched to on the grain.

However, on the tearing issue. I always tear my borders, but I always tear parallel to the selvedge. There's no distortion that way. Also, I straighten solid color fabric by tearing. After you tear it, you need to pull the fabric into square across the bias, corner to corner.

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Originally Posted by jaciqltznok

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Originally Posted by katier825

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Originally Posted by jaciqltznok

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Originally Posted by Scissor Queen

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Originally Posted by jaciqltznok

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Originally Posted by Scissor Queen

One of the worst ones I've ever heard is to sew the border on with the border next to the feed dogs. That's almost a guarantee for wavy borders.

you mean keep the border fabric ON TOP of the quilt when sewing it on?

Yup. Unless you're using a walking foot or even feed foot the feed dogs will slightly ease in the bottom fabric. "Bag the bottom" and "bias on the bottom" are old sewing sayings for a reason.

I always put my borders on the top, but never knew I was supposed to! THanks for sharing that!

Whichever piece is the fullest is what should be on bottom. Meaning that if you have to ease a piece into another, keep the piece to be eased on the bottom, whichever one it may be. :) By the way, cutting the borders lengthwise reduces the amount of stretch. I never have wavy borders anymore since I started doing this.

Interesting...I do cut my borders lengthwise when possible, even if it means still piecing them together!

I do the lengthwise thing too--for borders and binding. I try to figure the fabric requirements out so I can cut the necessary pieces for the rest of the quilt after cutting the borders and binding. So far I've been lucky and it's all worked out pretty close to even! But I don[t mind leftovers as I intend to do some scrappy stash quilts in the future.

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Originally Posted by salmonsweet

"This is too difficult for you."

:roll:

well that would just set me off ! and i'd have to prove them wrong!

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Originally Posted by irishrose

The worst advice I ever received was from an experienced quilter. I was even more of a beginner than I am now. I was making a wall hanging with an eight pointed star in the center. I could not get it lay down. I took it to a quilter, she said to keep trying. Duh, it was highly glazed chintz and polished cotton home dec fabric. That will never lay down - at least not for a beginner. I wonder where it's at? Somewhere in sewing room #1, I imagine.

Wonder if you can use a 45 degree ruler to salvage your 8point star and finish it.

Went to a quilt store and the lady tore my fabric. I was in SHOCK !!! so I advised her cut another piece. She looked @ me & said OH but its so much easier to rip this fabric? That is what my Manager said . I polite advised her the manager is not buying this piece. So she cut my piece. My Maw Maw always said don't tear & she quilted by hand for over 75yrs.

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Originally Posted by Edie

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Originally Posted by pkary

Not to waste my money by buying more material than I need for the intended project. A) I almost never actually make what I bought the material for in the first place and B) it turns out I love to make scrappy quilts! What would I do without all those left over pieces!

My worst advice was to listen to the quilt shop when they told me I had enough fabric (over $150 worth) to make a three colored block quilt and right at this minute I am almost out of one fabric and running low on the other two, which I cannot find anywhere. It was my feeliing to buy more and have room for leftovers and mistakes, but no, I listened to her. This quilt was to be a super king size with 48 - 12" blocks. 6 across/8 down. It was all planned out. I have 21 blocks done and now am running around like a chicken with my head cut off, hoping I can find the fabric or decide how to fix it with other colors in the same color scheme to go with it. Drats! Edie

Can you post photos of your fabric here? Maybe someone can help you out? All the best with your search.

I guess mine was being told to buy the border fabric when the quilt was done so I could measure and would know how much to get. But that quilt got put away awhile ('Life' happened) and by the time I needed the border material it was no longer available!!! I'm still looking, oh these many years later....

The phrase I learned when 13 years old and in home economics was bpob---biggest piece on bottom! It's always worked for me.

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Originally Posted by lvaughan

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Originally Posted by sherrill

I was advised to tear fabric to straighten. Not true ladies

Help me out here. Tearing fabric won't straighten it? Could you explain please?

No, it only tears it on grain. You still have to pull on the biases to make everything true to grain. Tearing also wastes a couple of inches of fabric because it tends to stretch it there; even pressing doesn't really bring it back to size. Tearing works for Home Dec if you are making drapes where you really HAVE to have it straight of grain, but for quilting I find it an inferior treatment to finding straight of grain. In most cases in quilting prefect straight of grain isn't crucial, especially if you are cutting small pieces.