Sewing in one direction causes bows?

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04-30-2011, 05:57 AM

#41

SoozeeDoozee

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Join Date: Jan 2011

Location: Thornton CO (Denver)

Posts: 744

This method is particularly helpful with Bargello quilts.

04-30-2011, 06:05 AM

#42

janb

Senior Member

Join Date: Mar 2010

Location: Northeast Colorado

Posts: 422

Quote:

Originally Posted by woohoowendy

I think after cutting the thread, pressing, going downstairs to get coffee, answering the phone, picking up scraps off the floor . . . . . I will SURELY forget which direction I was sewing when sewing a whole bunch of strips.

Does anyone have an easy method for remembering which direction you sewed each strip?

Should I just use a perm. marker to mark an arrow in the seam allowance at the start of each strip? Or maybe there's an even easier solution . . . . please post any ideas.

Thanks!

Just stick a red headed pin in the last row sewed...works for me!

04-30-2011, 06:14 AM

#43

tobyjenkins

Member

Join Date: Mar 2011

Posts: 8

I have never posted before, but I wanted to share my solution as to how I keep track of which direction I sewed which strip. I leave the long thread tails at the beginnng of the row when I start to sew on a strip and cut the tails short at the end. That way, if I get distracted, I can always tell that if the long tails are at the top, that is where I started sewing that strip and know to start the next strip should start at the other end. Seems to work for me.

04-30-2011, 06:14 AM

#44

vivoaks

Super Member

Join Date: Oct 2009

Location: Beaver PA USA

Posts: 1,656

I figured this out the hard way.... what a pain to fix! Do it their way, for sure!!!

04-30-2011, 06:17 AM

#45

Phyl

Senior Member

Join Date: Dec 2006

Location: New York

Posts: 332

OMG!!!LOL!!! When I was a pure newbie, I was so excited, I sewed all of my bargello strips in one direction on the machine. WOW! BOW MENS WAVY, WAVY, and more WAVY! Think about it. Everytime you sew in a direction, it pulls a little bit on the material.....keep doing that and it exaggerates the pulling! Sew once in one direction, then in the other. It will keep the material flat. I had to take my bargello and lay it out, finding small, six inch squares, and then I put those together. It was a lesson well learned. The new six inch bargello squares came together in a kimono pattern and it was lovely but far, far, far too much work due to not understanding! I love that quilt because it improved my work! (Always get something positive from whatever you can.)

04-30-2011, 06:20 AM

#46

JoanneS

Super Member

Join Date: Mar 2008

Location: AZ and CT

Posts: 4,898

You can usually tell, because the BOTTOM is usually uneven. However, marking the tops is fail-safe! Even with Pfaff's built-in walking foot, I alternate the end I start sewing.

04-30-2011, 06:24 AM

#47

JoanneS

Super Member

Join Date: Mar 2008

Location: AZ and CT

Posts: 4,898

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnnieF

I was reading a blog and the woman was talking about making scrappy strip quilts....her specialty....you know the ones where you cut all the fabrics by width of fabric and just arrange them in rows. She said the way she conquers the bowing of the strips is by sewing the strips by twos....and then sewing the 2-strip sections together...and then the 8-strip sections. Apparently she says that by having 2 strips sewn, it stabilizes the fabric and you don't have to do that right to left and left to right sewing. It's worth a shot.

Nope - you have to sew all those 2s from the opposite end. Trust me! Otherwise you'll get bows - just not so many!

04-30-2011, 07:46 AM

#48

Farm Quilter

Super Member

Join Date: Mar 2010

Location: Odessa, Washington

Posts: 1,872

Quote:

Originally Posted by woohoowendy

There are pins that are already marked L, R, T and B. Or you can use the flower pins and mark on them with a Sharpie. It really makes a difference - if you sew all the strips in the same direction, the feed dogs seem to make the fabric shift away from your starting side and then you get wonky!

04-30-2011, 08:10 AM

#49

pab58

Super Member

Join Date: Jun 2010

Location: near Tucson, Arizona

Posts: 5,841

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lisa_wanna_b_quilter

Sew two strips of fabric together. Sew the third strip on starting from the end you just finished with.

It is said that sewing multiple strips in one direction will bow the fabric.

Yep, this is what it means! :thumbup: Before I knew any better I sewed about 3-4 strips together. The first one or two looked fine, but as I added other ones the bottom started to curl (or bow). Each one that was added to the strip caused it to curl even more. Haven't done that again!! :wink:

04-30-2011, 08:54 AM

#50

quiltmom04

Super Member

Join Date: Jan 2009

Location: PA

Posts: 2,879

I have done ALOT of sewing strips in "strata", and I've found that the pressing has more to do with bowing than the sewing does. And that if it's possible to work with 22" wide strips instead of 44", that helps. too. If you pull your strips at all when you feed them through, it will cause bowing, but if you let the machine pull them through, you should be OK.