MiniDoe

So... imagine carefully piecing a top, lays flat and perfect. Then you add your borders and lay it out, only to see that there’s a fold of fabric on one edge, measuring about 3” when you pinch the fabric together to make it straight and even with the rest of the quilt. So you remove the border thinking since that waffle fold wasn’t there before that one last border, that border must be the problem, right? Wrong. So you remove all the borders only to see that the waffle fold in your quilt top had been there all along, but somehow your eyes must have deceived you because it really did look perfectly even before. Like... how did this happen? When did this happen? This is my current situation.

Is there a fix for this or should I just accept that one edge of the quit will be distorted and move on?

toverly

I know how frustrating that is, it has happened to me too. Silly as it sounds, count your blocks. When it happened to me, I had extra. I had made a mistake in block and doubled one section, no idea why. But then I with me, the larger the border the more it waves.

Doggramma

Unless you’re going to hang it up, I wouldn’t worry about it. The other thing people do is block the quilt after it’s done. I’ve never done that but I think it involves getting the quilt really wet and pinning it to make it square and flat.

dunster

If you post a picture we may be able to offer suggestions.

RedGarnet222

If you have bias in your quilt top blocks you have to take great care while pressing and storing the top. It will grow out of shape it you even put it folded with other quilts on top of it to wait it's turn to be quilted. The weight of the other objects can force a bow into the fabric. I don't know if this is what happened to you without seeing the top. but, just a word to the wise.

feline fanatic

3" is an awful lot of excess fabric so I would try and fix the issue. You say once all your borders were off the quilt it is still out of square (has a waffle as you put it). Is it still as drastic as it was (3" of excess fabric) or did the problem get worse with each successive border? When you measure each side of the quilt how far off are the measurements? If not much (say 1/2" to 1") you can ease those in by measuring through the center of your quilt for length and width and cutting your border to that measurement, pin a lot and ease in that excess. Repeat the measure and cut to measurement for each successive border. Usually this problem rears its ugly head when you don't measure for your border, just take a long strip of fabric and sew it and cutting it even with the quilt's edge. Often referred to as a slap and sew border. If you plan on having the quilt longarmed you will need to get the waffle out. It won't present as much of a problem if you plan on quilting it on your domestic machine but could still result in a wrinkle or pleat somewhere.

Jingle

I haven't had that happen. I think if I did I would have to try and figure out what caused it. Good luck.

MiniDoe

Thanks for the replies.

I found the mistake. I’m so embarrassed. It was a missing side of sashing on a block, missed because of a mix of black fabric, poor lighting and poor eyesight. I knew I’d have a hard time but plowed onward anyway. That’s what I get, I suppose, trying to rush this one through for the holidays. Lesson learned. I’m now down for the count with a nasty bug but am ripping out seams in bed. Thanks again, everyone. And if you celebrate, have a wonderful holiday!

bearisgray

kudoes to you for finding the problem and being in the process of fixing it !

Onebyone

I made a fairly large quilt and quilted pleats and folds on the back on purpose. A whole lot of them so it wouldn't look like random mistakes. I pleated the backing and then quilted it. Didn't matter if more pleats or folds got made while quilting. It looked great. I won most creative 1st place ribbon at local quilt show. The quilt was hung so the back could be seen.