Watson

This is my third quilt on my long arm and the fabric is quite wavy between the quilting lines. I'm not sure why.

Did I have the fabric too tight?

Any help appreciated.
Watson

Iceblossom

It looks like that top corner is your problem area? Was that the top of the project and did you start from the left or the right? I might look at positioning on the frame and whether or not maybe something is happening like if you have curtains behind your set up, maybe they reach out and grab the lines of the machine head as it goes by. It doesn't go down the full project so I don't think it is your issue, but if your bars have connectors sometimes you get jumps/issues at the connectors and so you place small projects to left or right but not dead center.

My natural inclination is to make everything super tight -- that didn't always work out so well for me. For me it mostly showed by skipped stitches.

The other thing I had to watch is that I like rather fluffy batts anyway, and nothing I used was labeled. I learned to check the foot pressure every time. I reset it to default when I was done (think the manual recommended a dime? thickness). There are a lot of advantages to buying and using that one big roll of consistent batting.

Sort of like a leader/ender in chain piecing, I usually had a piece of fabric about 4x6 or so in the extra fabric/batting to the side. I'd start there, make sure up/down and left/right and circles felt good before moving on.

Tartan

Is the bottom fabric wavy as well? If so then it was probably stretched too tight. With regular machine sewing reoeated rows, it is best to reverse directions every other row.

bearisgray

The author of this article suggests sewing all the lines in one/same direction only for straight line quilting.

http://quiltingdigest.com/6-great-ti...hine-quilting/

bearisgray

This is a video using a walking foot - but she is also sewing the lines in the same direction - not reversing directions.

http://quiltingdigest.com/6-great-ti...hine-quilting/

Another article- using a dsm - but I would think the same ideas would apply to using a long arm machine - she also suggests starting all lines on one edge to minimize drag.

http://quiltingdigest.com/6-great-ti...hine-quilting/

bearisgray

The waves actually look kind of good with the fish design.

eparys

Really cute quilt!!

I have a couple of questions - looking at the quilt I am thinking that you went from left to right and then sewed from right to left? Did you baste the sides first? Is is possible that your tension is too tight? On my LA, I baste the sides then clamp it. It is finicky as to how tight the fabric is in both directions . I get sometimes get that shift in fabric when basting if my tension is too tight so maybe it could be a combination of tension and direction. Are you using a Towa gauge or drop bobbin method to set the bobbin tension.

cindi

I had that problem on a quilt but it wasn’t the quilt. It was the binding. Surprisingly, the binding was on too loose!

Peckish

I was also wondering about basting and if the sides had been clamped or not. So sorry! I've never seen this before on a longarmed quilt, only on some DSM quilting. What kind of longarm is it?

Jennifer23

As others have said, the biggest culprit is probably not basting the sides. If you float the top you should still baste the sides as you go - just run a quick line up each side every time you advance the quilt. This also helps keep it square.

From the amount of waving, I think you might have also had it too tight and/or had the foot too close to the quilt top. Is your batting quite thick/puffy? If it is, you might want to have things a bit looser than usual, so that the top isn't too close to the foot. A millimetre or two can make the difference between the foot gliding nicely over the top versus pushing the top out of place as you stitch.

That's a super cute quilt! I would definitely keep the waves - I think they look cool.