stitchinsally Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 I'm sure my answer is somewhere on the forum but, I don't have the patience to look so, can someone please give me some direction as to what I've done wrong. I am doing some practicing of some new things on a small quilt (36X36) with a small outside border. The interior area of the quilt is to be one lg flower design that is about 29" from edge to edge. I SID all the way around the quilt between the border and the interior of the quilt to stabilize it in preparation of the larger design. I then started to do a small freehand design in the border and was almost completed when I looked on the underside and discovered that all of the backing, in the large area between the borders, is buckling. Why? What did I do wrong? In this instance, since I'm working 1 lg design on the interior, I thought I was suppose to stabilize the whole quilt before doing the interior design. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Guess I'll go starting ripping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DebsQuiltArt Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 Hello Sally. You are right. It is important to stabilize the areas with SID then fill in the other areas. Or at least use pins to stabilize areas, so it won't pull in more backing fabric. Start sewing from the inside to outer edges, but if your detail in intricate in the middle, don't go too far without addressing the sides (borders), or that fullness will be hard to work in also. I am now in the habit of looking under my machine ALWAYS before I stitch any rows. Sometimes, our backing fabric is not square and you can end up gaining there too. Hope this helps, Debr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quiltmonkey Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 Sally, another thought: When you did your stabilizing, did you really tighten the rollers and the sides? If so, what can happen is you over tighten and pull the backer fabric and when you release it, it relaxes and gets fullness in it. So, one thing to keep in mind when you are stabilizing with SID is to make sure you are not pulling and stretching your backer fabric too tight on the rollers and not clamping it too tight on the sides. Your backer fabric and top should be taut but not overly tight. Keep it a little loose. That way when you release the tension on the rollers the backer fabric will pretty much stay the same (not tugged tight). I hope this helps. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stitchinsally Posted January 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 You're probably right Shana. Oh well, it's a practice but my freehand border design looked sooooo nice for the first time ever doing them and taking the plunge. Since it is in the high 60's in KS today, went for a short motorcycle ride to clear my head and now sitting outside ripping and thankful that, for some reason, I had decided to use a larger stitch then I normally do. Will just attack it next weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merryjo2003 Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 Sometimes I find very tight quilting kinda takes up a lot of the fabric in areas, then you move somewhere else and have fullness underneath. I try my best to not stretch any of the fabric and stabilize before I start. I've also tried to move around the quilt to balance the quilting as I go. This seems to help. I've been fasinated by my embroidery machine for years. It seems to go from place to place, balancing the stitching and that seems to help keep the stretching of the fabric to a minimum. That's how I got the idea to try it when I'm quilting something intense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandra Darlington Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 I started to stabilize using pins in areas without SID. I saw this tip on one of Myrna's DVDs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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