Barb M

Well, my large quilt that i've been working on, i decided to quilt it in sections, then piece it together. It sure made the quilting easier, but now, i'm not so happy with it, i will make sure i do it better next time. Joining the finished fronts was easy, but several long seams on the back that had to be slip stitched took me several days, a total of 6 hours of slip stitching. And, well, i made a mistake. When doing my slip stitching, in some places i pulled my backing fabric a little too taught...it looked fine from the back, but when i flipped it over, it created some puffy areas on the front! Oh well, i will fix it. Sooooo, i might do it this way next time, but if i do, i will be very careful to join the backing pieces with just the right amount of pull. I will be able to fix it, i will have to quilt carefully over the puffy area. I know it's not very noticeable, didnt notice it til i put my glasses on! LOL But now i'm going to fix that, and then finish quilting where the seams meet, etc Just not happy that i didnt pin pin pin and double check before stitching

Prism99

You might want to try a different technique next time that does not require the slip-stitching of long seams in back. I can't remember the quilter's name, but she wrote a book that included this technique that she uses for large quilts. I'm not sure I can do an adequate job of explaining it here, but I'll try.

The top, batting and backing are layered as usual. Baste the middle only.

Peel the right one-third of the top and backing to the left, exposing the right one-third of the batting. Using a rotary cutter, she cut the batting in a big S-pattern down its length with the width of the S being about 6 inches. Remove the right piece (probably want to label it top/bottom/front). Do the same with the left one-third of the batting.

What this does is allow you to quilt the middle one-third of the quilt first without the bulk of the right and left batting pieces. Just be sure to leave about 6 inches free of quilting on each side of the middle piece of batting. There is much less bulk to handle while quilting this way, and just the top and backing fabrics to roll up or fold under the machine arm.

Re-attach one side of the batting to the middle part, again peeling back the top and backing so you can work just on the batting. Use a tailor-tack type large hand stitch to secure the right one-third of the batting to the middle one-third of teh batting. (The stitch is like the one Sharon Schamber uses to baste quilts on her Youtube video.) The S-shape keeps the join from separating later and forming a crease in the quilt, plus it helps you position it back in its original place. Quilt that one-third.

Reattach the last one-third of batting and quilt that one-third.

The piecing of the batting will be invisible, there will be no hand-stitching required for seams on the back, and all of your quilting will look as if it was done on the whole quilt.

Another tip about batting. Many battings have more stretch going one way than crosswise, same as fabric. The best way to layer a batting is to have the stretchy grain running up and down the length of the quilt, with the less stretchy crosswise grain running left and right.

Barb M

Oh thank you so much Prism, i have thought of that as another option for next time, but it wont work though. Each year i will be making the same quilt as a raffle quilt, and i have a lot of pieced roses on it that i have to stitch in the ditch, and when i get to the outer roses, that would be a lot of turning of the quilt. What i am hoping is that by next year, my free motion quilting will be so much better, that i wont be doing the twisting and turning in the ditch thing, but be able to keep the quilt in one direction, and just free-motion. It will all depend on what method of quilting i'm going to be using. I did just manage to fix my error, i managed to top stitch some quilting and it came out perfect, whew :)

ProLongarmARTQUILTER

:roll: Ok But Do we Really LOOK at the Back, you don't Look at the back of a Painting why a quilt?? Quilt Police??? Think Not :twisted:

amma

I am sorry that it was giving you trouble, but I am happy that you were able to fix it :D When do we get to see a picture? :D :D

Tiffany

Actually, most people will look at the back of a quilt if given a chance. My local guild is having their Quilt Show this weekend and we either provide gloves or have a label on each quilt that people can use to help turn the quilt so they can look at the back. I love looking at the back because a lot of times you can see the quilting better. And sometimes a person will piece together their backs, giving the quilt a totally different look from behind. (Much like we humans! :lol: )

littlehud

Isn't that frustrating. After all that work. Maybe is isn't too bad. Send us a picture. I bet we will love it. I kinda like puffy. Makes them look more cuddly.

dunster

I have pieced 4 large quilts in sections and am currently working on my 5th. I love the technique! I watched Marti Michell at Puyallup's Sewing and Stitchery Expo a year ago, and then bought her book: Machine Quilting in Sections. I've used two or three of her techniques and find myself going back to this book again and again.

When I'm sewing the back by hand, I do it at my ironing board. I position the quilt so that the seam to be sewn runs toward me on the board, so the quilt is being supported on either side. I find that it's much easier on my hands not to support the weight of the quilt that way and everything stays stable since the weight of the quilt is not working against that seam being straight. It doesn't take long at all to finish up the quilt. I do have one of the slightly larger ironing boards (bought at Costco).

Carol W

Please post a pic!

peel

hi,
I think Marti Mitchell is the name you are trying to remember. I'm using one of her techniques on a queen size irish chain. I'm going to quilt the center (70 x 90 irish chain) part and then add the borders. pinned and ready to go just haven't jumped in yet. expect to do that with the next couple of days, but i've been saying that for a couple of weeks. really got to get to it.
peel