Joset

wow i have a long arm and i am not that good and i take the time to center the
back and the front and i always check bottom as i am quilting. you shouldnt have
them puckers on bottom.

mary123

Feline Fanatic,
Why are seams going the length of the backing a problem versus seams going horizontally across the fabric?
Do you know what can cause the thread tension to be off on the back of a quilt? Thanks.

eparys

ckcowl gave you a great description.

Although I do not LA for others, the few times I have pieced the back it takes forever measuring before loading and careful placing of the top to get where you want to be. I do avoid any borders so to say on the back because once the batting is on top of the backing there is no way to determine on my Voyager (other than laying flat on my back under the machine - lol) where I am. I stick to stripes with extra blocks and try to get them (oddly enough) deliberately off center. This is a great option when I am short on backing fabric.

I am sorry to hear that you were unhappy but I think any of us would have been as well. I agree that puckers are completely unacceptable! If your longarmer thought she had a problem, she should have discussed it with you before putting it on the frame and let you decide what you wanted to do.

SandyinZ4

Thanks to all of you for your comments, tips and helpful advice. Just to say in my defense, my backing was done well. At least I thought so. I always iron everything flat and smooth before I fold up and send away to LA person so that at least it was pressed flat once. I did send extra fabric on all sides, but not the same as border fabric. I thought I had used well-made (not lesser quality fabric). At least the puckered fabric is dark and aside from one small border being a light color, the puckers are not too noticeable. I am like others, and really like doing multi-fabric backings, just for economy's sake. Won't make such a nice one next time, though based on all of your advice. I really appreciate your thoughts.

QuiltNama

Lining up the front and back is a bit tricky but the LArmer should be able to get close (not always perfect, but close) and there should not be a bunch of puckers on the back of your quilt. As you load the back onto the roller you can usually tell if there are going to be some problems. After each roll, I check underneath to make sure there are no puckers.

feline fanatic

Hi Mary,

On LA racks where the quilter has to adjust the take up roller, the roller the finished quilt rolls on to, a single seam running the length of the back will cause a fatter area to build up where the seam is. The part of the quilt that is exposed in the rack to be quilted has a very narrow "window" of space where it is supposed to rest for optimum quilting. It can't be too far above the bed of the machine head as that could interfere with the hopping foot and make ruler work quite challenging, I would imagine. It can't be dragging too low as that interferes with movement of the machine head and smooth uniform quilting. The buildup of that center seam can cause drag whenever the machine head brushes against that part of the take up roller where the buildup is. This forces the quilter to adjust the take up roller to a higher position and if they go too high it can interfere with how the hopping foot works and quality of quilting stitch (which could indeed affect your back tension). If the seam goes horizontally across there is no buildup in one area in the middle. When the quilter reaches that point and rolls the quilt up on the take up bar the bulk is evenly distributed across the entire width of the quilt instead of in just one area in the center.

Hope this makes sense. Very hard to explain without the visual and also for someone who doesn't ever have that problem to explain, due to the nature of my rack the take up roller is already well above the machine bed.

Another thing that can make your back tension go bad all of a sudden, lint caught in the bobbin case will do it for sure. It will increase your bobbin tension causing eyelashes to occur on curves or really throw your back tension out of whack due to your bobbin tension suddenly being too tight due to the hunk of lint caught in the spring. Ask me how I know that one! LOL

QuiltE

Good thoughts for the future on your part, SandyInZ4.

In defense of your LAQ ... talk to her NOW ... while the quilt is fresh in her mind as to what happened (or did not).

And too, please keep in mind that you have not shown us pictures for anyone to truly know what you did ... nor what your LAQ did. Keep in mind that comments that have been made are not with full knowledge of the facts.

You've heard a range of thoughts which will have you educated for speaking to your LAQ to discuss your concerns and questions might want to ask about this quilt, and having her do work for you in the future. You have already paid her, so from her perspective, she does not have to fear being paid and should be willing to discuss openly.