feline fanatic

Because you had prefaced your question to Longarmers, I understood what you were asking. One thing of note, is that a lot of times (not always but the overwhelming majority) when you have these variances it is only in the borders which is why so many people responded about attaching borders. If you were to measure the inside dimension of the quilt top before any of the borders start, I bet it would be pretty close to square (that both the sides are within 1/2" of each other and same for the top and bottom. The problem arises when piecers take a long strip of border fabric and "slap and sew" then cut it to be even with the top. The problem is often exacerbated when the quit top center had edges done on the bias, like a quilt set on point where the setting triangles were cut in such a way the bias ends up being the outside edge before the borders are attached. This is why it is so important to measure and cut your borders before attaching them and to pin (or glue or whatever your favorite method is for holding the pieces together as you sew). If this is not done, when the LAer goes to load it on the rack we end up with wavy edges and loads of fullness in areas, that can or can't be worked in with quilting.
If the variance is large like 3" to 4" we usually have to take a pleat (aka tuck) in the border. I always consult with the piecer before doing this. Here is an example. I inserted red arrows pointing to my tucks.
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I have also had instances where it was so bad that I had to remove the border, measure, cut it to size and reattach it. I know you aren't the quilt police for these tops, but you could do a great service to the people who are piecing these quilts to show them how to properly attach a border and why. Show them that one side measures one thing, the other side measures another thing then lay the top out flat to show them how this makes for some challenges when quilting on a LA or rack mounted setup. For those who quilt on a table type machine (domestic or extended throat) it does not present as much of a challenge but you will still end up with a quilt that has wavy edges. I have to believe it causes issues if spray basting to get those wavy edges to lie flat.

Iceblossom

Thank you for showing the corrections, Feline. You did those border tucks nicely. As you mentioned about the bias edges, I've had to help people with diagonal sets to have tiny tucks at almost every point.

I know the irregularity of other people's quilts is one of the chief complaints I hear from professional long-armers.

When I was using my friend's set-up, I would typically do one of my backlog tops and then one of hers. I can tell you just from limited amount of exposure how much more time consuming one of her non-square tops was to do. First you had to make sure you could fit it on the backing because entire top was skewed and different on each of the four edges. Nothing ever fit, so I'd design something based on 6" and the squares would vary from 5.5-6.5 inches. Maybe it wasn't all that bad but I felt like every single block required a correction.

The real correction isn't done by the long-arm quilter, it needs to be done by the piecers as they learn our shared craft. I'm all for having fun but no... I can't think of any excuse by an adult to be 4 inches off! I always stress that it might not be much fun but that seam consistency is vital and essential in getting blocks to go together properly and when your blocks are proper your top is much more consistent without additional effort. You can sew scant (like me) or right on, or over, but if you are consistent you can correct mistakes. I believe strongly in pressing my fabric, with my friend and her lumpy messes of fabric it's no wonder her cutting wasn't consistent.

I will admit (freely and openly even) that I don't measure my edges, I cut to fit. But everything is pressed, smoothed out and I pin about every two inches. If I can I prefer to cut my borders the long way, I feel I get better results.

Sandra-P

Feline, you are a gem! Thank you for taking the time to explain this and with pics! Your tucks are hardly noticeable and I would not have seen them unless you pointed them out. Yes, this is why my question was asked of long armers. We have all levels of quilters. Some of the quilt tops are ones from a person we have not even met. She had a business and some tops that were donated to her are really a challenge. They look like they were done in the 1980's because of some of the fabrics. Probably not rotary cut either. So far, we have done quite well with them once finished. I have learned from so many of you who posted on this. Thank you!

Iceblossom

Sandra, maybe some of your group can take the worst tops and rework them to where they are ready to be quilted?

Reverse sewing is never that fun but there is a sense of satisfaction to the process. I get most of my fabric from thrift stores, some times I get tops or UFOs, and some are very challenging to fix. You can cut blocks down to a consistent size, you can frame them to make them larger, and you can just fudge in this or that here and there.

In my bag now I take to my small group is a top I recently purchased. It is a baby block quilt in what I think are early 80s maroon and pink and it is overall well made but I think the quilter lost interest (and I think part of that is because the maker didn't put the light part of the block on top) and slapped on a close but not quite right poly border. I am going to be taking that off. I might cut it off or I might frog stitch it, need to measure it a bit and make some decisions. Then I will put on a new border, no it won't be solid, it will be a related color print.

For another top I recently picked up, well the workmanship was pretty awful but they had great pieces of fabric. Some large usable ones, some smaller sashing ones. That one wasn't recreated, it was just turned back into fabric which did get used pretty much right away. They aren't all worth saving just because they are done.

feline fanatic

Oh I also forgot to mention that spray starch can work wonders in taking up fullness when quilting on a LA. I recently had a quilt that was perfectly pieced, just as flat and square as you could ask for. It was a panel quilt. The quilting I did around the panel was very dense. Stupidly, I did not baste that panel as I went but quilted all around it and went back to do the panel. Major mistake!!! Because the quilting took up so much fabric around the panel when I went back to quilt the panel both the top and the backing (mostly the backing) had a lot of fullness. I used spray starch to take up the fullness in the top, then unloaded the quilt and reloaded it backing side up. I spray starched the dickens out of that too and then let it all dry. Then I distributed that fullness evenly with my hands while basting with a large meander to evenly distribute and hold everything in place. I then flipped the quilt back over and quilted it from the front and then removed my basting stitches. Not one tuck or pleat and once the quilt was done you couldn't even tell I had a problem (which was all my own stupid doing). Here is the quilt: "Peony Fantasy" an Asian Panel quilt massively quilted

So while we have loads of tricks to take in fullness there are no tricks for quilting out a shortfall of fabric which is another reason we go for the smallest size when squaring up on the rack.

Sandra-P

Feline, Wow, Beautiful!

The Quilted Cottage

Beautiful quilt and quilting! And feline fanatic, thank you for the thorough explanation. As a future LA purchaser, I appreciate all the tips that experienced LAers are willing to share. I'm taking notes and keeping them safe!

quiltingshorttimer

thanks Feline for explaining this so all could understand. it would be wonderful if everyone made sure their borders are well-done--would save a lot of headaches!

Ellen 1

I measure in 3 places. Top, middle, bottom, then average. Again 4” is way off somewhere prior to the borders being added. You need to figure out where the problem is and make the correction before adding the borders.

pewa88

Thanks for the explanation, I understand completely now. I have a very funny story about a quilt that I quilted for a friend many years back. It literally was a parrellogram because it was so skewed. I loaded it on the machine and after the first few passes I saw the problem. I took some pictures and sent them to her to ask how she wanted me to proceed. She said go ahead and quilt it and I did. She turned it into a dog bed (expensive dog bed) and said she would chalk it up to experience. I had started with the regular extra 4 inches of backing on the top left and at the end of the quilt there was no extra backing on the lower right side. We still laugh about that parrellogram quilt. She is a much better piecer nowadays.