lindasewsit Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 HI!! I have this wonderful quilt that I had talked about earlier on another thread.... I loaded it up , rolled it 2 times, still wonky on the leaders..... I called Myrna, She suggested I pull it off and lay it on the floor to see where my problem was....Well, I did and as you can see , I have some problems.... believe it or not, this is better than it was. I have starched and steamed it. I didn't take any pics of the before. This is a wonderful cute quilt, and the maker has been an encouragement and inspiration for me to even get my longarm. She has sent several people my way for business. The problem lies in all the borders, I believe....7 of them!! I'm wondering if I put this on again, do you think the batting will help? Would it help if I didn't hook it up to the front top leader? I have sent her pics of it and told her if it still comes out wonky with the batting, she'll have to adjust the borders. This is one of those things Mary Beth was talking about in her post this morning..... Thanks everyone!! linda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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Quilting Heidi Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 Linda, If you do piano keys in that outside border you should be able to hide most of that without a tuck. I would suggest asking her to take the outside border off and redoing it. If she says no then I'd quilt it and if you get a tuck you get a tuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PattyJo Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 Hi Linda - that is a beautiful quilt and if you've steamed and starched it and it still looks like this I only have 1 suggestion. I don't know this from first hand experience, but somewhere on the chat, someone said use a thick batt to help take up the extra fabric. Maybe someone who has used this on the wonky borders can step in here and let you know. It's too bad you can't put this in the oven like s ahrinky dink and get rid of the waves & ripples. :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandraC Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 All I can say is "wowzer"!!! I'd ask her to correct the borders or be prepared for some pleatin' and a-tuckin'!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandraC Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 Good idea of Heidi's....piano keys do work wonders!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stagecl Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 It looks like the problem starts before the first inside border. Obviously, she didn't measure. I would ask that at all the borders be taken off, the inside squared up then everything stitched back on and squared up at the same time. If she doesn't want to go to all the work, then you should let her know that you will do your best but can't promise that there won't be a pleat, tuck or two in the end due to the extra fullness. Cheryl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonnie Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 I agree with everything that's been said before...not measured correctly, get a thick batting and see what happens, and use the piano keys in the borders, but I would go across all three, not just the outside one. If she used a fabric that wasn't 100% cotton this may be why you didn't get all the whonk out of it, but from where I sit it looks like she could take it home and get at least 6 inches out of each side and maybe even the ends. EVERY border from the very first inside one has some major major ruffling...and it just got worse as she went out. Its a great quilt, but needs some major attention before you can even get this on the frame. Sorry....you had to be the one to get this one...its bad I agree. Good luck, and let us know what happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffq-lar Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 Yikes! If you don't mind more time on the floor, control the fullness now where you can get to the exact places that will need tucks. (This is a method to use if she declines to re-sew the borders.) Find the waviest spots. Go six or eight inches up the top and place your hand firmly on the seam to secure it and run a finger from the seam to the edge staying as close to the grain of the fabric that you can. Tape that flat spot to the floor. Go down a foot, secure with hand pressure on the seam and run a finger out again. Tape. The fabric rearing up in between the tape will get a carefully pinned tuck, matching the seams of the different colors and making that section flat. Move down and begin again. Work around the top, adjusting and pinning as many tucks as necessary to flatten the borders. I would invite your customer to help you--nothing like a little "floor work" to teach the value of correctly-applied borders!! If the center is almost square, the top may be close to square when you finish this technique. The tucks are in place and the top is ready to load. If it takes up to 2 hours to do this--even with help, tack an extra $40 on the bill. Give her a heads-up before you start so she won't get sticker shock! Load it up--I would float it so you can fine-tune the tucks as you get to them--and either edge-stitch the tucks or recommend she applique-stitch them after quilting. I would send it back, but if you do, consider the impact on the customer. She may toss it on the UFO pile never to finish it, she may fix it and never bring it back, or she may have you finish it and never bring you another because you are "too picky". Or she may take it as a lesson learned and be happy you could help fix it. Again--Yikes! Please let us know what the final outcome is! Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsbishwit Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 Linda; You have my sympathies on this one. Nothing that I can say that hasn't been said already. Good luck, and make sure you have a bottle of wine near by when you do end up doing this one, perhaps after you drank the bottle the borders won't seem so bad or perhaps at that point you won't care Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnnHenry Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 Doesn't anyone ever refuse a quilt ? ? ? And Linda, how I envy you having a room big enough to lay down an entire quilt! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindasewsit Posted January 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 Hi Ann! Ha!! We live in a 105 yr. old house. The room you walk into from the front door is where I have taken this pic. I have always thought it a waste of space....not really any reason for a room that big that you just walk into..... I guess it was the "Parlor"! but now, it has served it's purpose!! I can lay quilts out!! and thank you everyone for your responses! I have some quilter's dream, dream puff that I might try on this quilt. I haven't heard back from her yet from me sending her the pics....I'm almost afraid to call her! No, not really, she is a sweetie, and I'm sure we'll work it out, even if I just end up tucking it. This will be interesting!! linda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindasewsit Posted January 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 Hi! Well, I talked to my customer. When I called, she had not opened her email yet, so while we were on the phone, she opened it up and she actually gasped when when she saw the pics! She had no idea that they were that bad! I am going to do the fixing for her. I am charging her by the hour. It works out ok, cause right at the moment I don't have another quilt to do. When we were talking about what we had to do, I had said "I'm sorry" and she said,"well, it's not YOUR fault!" I told you she is a sweetie! This will have a happy ending and I am learning lots of things at the same time! Thanks for all of your input!!! linda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myrna Ficken Posted January 14, 2009 Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 Great Linda. It will turn ou beautiful. I love to do samplers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindasewsit Posted January 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 Hi Myrna!! Thank YOU for your help! It really did help to lay it out and look at it. I just got the big border off of it and tha t helped emensley! (sp?) There is still some waves, but VERY little. It will be workable. I will iron and measure those big borders very exact before I put them back on!! I can't wait to start quilting this!! How are your tapings going? I am excited for them!!! Let us know the minute we can purchase them!! Thanks again so much for your willingness to help!!! linda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marlette Posted January 14, 2009 Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 Hi Linda, For what it's worth...I just watched a video by Kim Brunner where she shows this type of problem.....not as bad as this one but with wavy borders. She shows how to do the piano border, quilt the stabilizing in the center of the quilt then stipple every other "key" in the border to take up even more of the fullness. I;m sure the more experienced of you will understand this but it sure worked on that quilt beautifully! Her borders were fewer so I don't know if this would work on multiple wavy borders. Good luck aand will look forward to seeing the finished quilt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grace Posted January 14, 2009 Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 The video by Kim Brunner has an example of this exact problem. She demos how to fix it, and it reallly looked flat, square, and straight when she finished with it. She did use a thick poly batting, plus a few extra pieces to take up the slack in some of the blocks, then she stitched it with some background filler around the dominant colors in each block. It looked really good when she showed it at the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsbishwit Posted January 14, 2009 Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 Originally posted by AnnHenry Doesn't anyone ever refuse a quilt ? ? ? Actually Ann, I have refused a few quilts over the years do to excessive fullness in blocks or a large wave in the border. It just depends on what my mood is when the customer brings in the problem quilt. If I am having one of those days I just flat out refuse, if I am in a good mood I take it but warn the customer of the possiblity of tucks and write on the order form that I talked to her about it and gave her the option to take it home and fix or take her chances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcox Posted January 14, 2009 Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 Hi I had a customer with quilt with simelar borders. In the past with quilts with wonky borders I would do my best to avoid tucks, rumples etc. not any more, since my last 118x 118 quilt with wonky borders that would not lie flat, I called the client and explained in a very nice way the problem. I suggested taking the borders off retrimming them straight and blocking the quilt and reappling her borders, I told her I would do it for $ per hour charge or she could come by and pick up the quilt and I would show her and she could do it at home then return tohe quilt to me, Of course she wanted me to just take care of it, I did and when I showed her the extra 4 inches of border fabric that was left over from resetting her borders she was shocked, so anymore I don't mess with really wonky borders, quilts need to be blocked and lay flat prior to me quilting, I lay them out with cient present and let them know if there is a problem and we fix it "BSSM" sometimes just can't get the job done. Just my thoughts Joyce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JollyJane Posted January 14, 2009 Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 O.M.G. Do hope that you can talk to your customer before she does another quilt and give her some guidance about how to avoid ever having this problem again. It is a lovely quilt, at least the blocks look great, but those borders are a nightmare by any standard!! I can't wait to see the finished quilt!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DebsQuiltArt Posted January 14, 2009 Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 Hello Linda. I have just had 2 quilts in with the same problems and here is how I handled the situation. The first one was a good friend who brings me in about 2 quilts per month and her last 3 started having wavy borders. I quilted those 2, but this third one was a 60" wide quilt and the top & bottom borders fluted out to 64"! That's 4" all around. I called her when it was on my frame, so she could see how I do things. I got her to redo the borders right at my house. She had stopped measuring and pinning! So that is why she gains all that extra fabric. She pulls the borders slightly as she is sewing. Once we re-did the borders, we were able to take out 8" of fabric. She was shocked and says she will pin and measure from now on. I reloaded the quilt right in front of her, so she could see the difference it made. Now, I wouldn't spend this much time with other customers, but it so happens she belongs to 2 different guilds and shows off hers and my work there. So, I want it to be the best it can be. She really appreciated the time I took. It was worth the time. The second customer was a beginner quilter. This was her first quilt and it looked worse than the one you received. I told her at the time that the borders needed to be re-done and she looked panicked. I told her for $20 an hour, I would do them for her, and she agreed. She had 3 borders that needed to be fixed. I joined these pieces of fabric together in a line on a piece of paper and guess what? It was 21" of extra fabric. She was shocked when she saw this visual. I gave her this piece of paper along with border instructions from the net for her next quilt. How can we work that in amount of fabric, without our work looking bad? I was nervous in the beginning to refuse any work, or to even say anything about their workmanship, but not anymore, because it causes nightmares and extra stress for us. MaryBeth hit the nail on the head yesterday about all the extra work we do for customers, and often are too nervous to charge them for it. Customers say they have pressed their quilts and I wonder what they pressed it with? A stack of books? Certainly not with an iron...I often tell people that a good iron is one of the greatest tools we can have. I often re-press and charge them $10 extra. They are always happy with the end result. I had an apple core quilt where she said she had ironed it, but found out later that she was afraid of the curves. Well, when she picked up her completed quilt, after I had ironed it; she got so emotional; she couldn't believe it was the same quilt! This was a treasured quilt that her sick mother had hand-made and she was afraid to clip the curves. I did not touch the curves, just ironed it. So do not be afraid...people judge our work and do not want to see pleats in it. Sorry to be so long-winded, but I think we need to share info like this, and stay united. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennan100 Posted January 15, 2009 Report Share Posted January 15, 2009 Myrna's video "Beginning Longarm Quilting" shows how to handle wavy boders using the piano keys. I have three of her videos so far adn she really packs a lot of info in them! If you need info as a newbie or even a wannabe like me they are an excellent investment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meg_marsh Posted January 15, 2009 Report Share Posted January 15, 2009 Glad all worked out.......... Now you can do a great job quilting and enjoy your time........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferret Posted January 17, 2009 Report Share Posted January 17, 2009 We did a bit of testing on borders after I got a quilt like this and we were quite surprised at the results. Ideally measure. It's the way to be certain. If you don't measure don't pin. Yes really those who pinned got excess in in the pinning stage rather than the sewing stage. If you are gentle with the fabric you can do just as well with sewing with out measuring or pinning. After 8 strips I was 1/4" out and one lady was still spot on. My customer was very quick at redoing her borders and thanked me for explaining how to make it work, but before I called I was petrified I was going to offend her. Ferret Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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