ramona-quilter Posted February 12, 2007 Report Share Posted February 12, 2007 I just finished this square in a square; indigo and white with pieced muslin backing and Warm & Natural cotton batting for a customer. She said that she wanted ?stripes? which really means lines through the white sashing. And she wanted a spiral in each square. It sounded pretty simple to me?. Yeah, we?ve all heard these sad stories. I should have known it was not going to be pretty when I had to return her muslin backing to her. The backing was wide enough but it was exactly the same length as the quilt top. I put the top and backing together to show her. I told her to just add 3 or 4 inches to the top and bottom. Two days later, I picked up her re-do on the backing from the LQS. When I went to mount it, I noticed that she had added the 4 inches?but she added it to the sides, not the top and bottom so it was still too short. Grrrrr. Then I really studied it and noticed that the muslin she added was pieced on with the seam on the wrong side. There was no ?smooth side?. This was worse than when I gave it to her to fix. That should have told me I was going to have problems. But huh, they are just squares, simple, huh? So I fixed the backing myself and moved on. I don?t have channel locks on my Ultimate I but I needed to be able to lock the machine so the lineswould be straight. On this forum, I learned that you can use bulldog clips (those pincher style paper clamps) to lock the wheels on the carriage. The line was perfectly straight. I don?t know who suggested this technique but THANK YOU. Unfortunately my straight line did not look so good with the quilts sashing pieces. It started off straight but then got closer to the squares and then got further away from the squares as I stitched from one end to the other.The seams were uneven making the squares anywhere from 3/8 inch to 5/8 inch from the straight line I quilted. Her squares were uneven. Grrrrr. Out of the 18 or so sashing strips (horizontal and vertical) only 3 of them were square. Then I remembered another tip from this forum. Stuff batting pieces under the takeup roller between the quilt and the metal roller and it would pull the quilt higher just wherever the batting is. I locked the carriage in place and then ran the machine down the edge without stitching, gauging where to stuff the batting. This worked great, so my stitched line was still straight and it looked pretty straight against the uneven squares. Whoever suggested this deserves a medal. Thank you, thank you. That?s why I love this forum. There are so many great ideas and techniques here. And here's the back: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Beth Posted February 12, 2007 Report Share Posted February 12, 2007 Linda, It looks fantastic...you did a great job considering the few problems that cropped up. Great job. I bet your customer is pleased. Mary Beth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PattyJo Posted February 12, 2007 Report Share Posted February 12, 2007 Linda - I would say that you conquered all the problems. YEEAAA ! it sure helps to know that if any of us run up against a problem, we can come here and look for the different topics that might help. You have proven it can be done! Thanks for posting the pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa Thiesssen Posted February 13, 2007 Report Share Posted February 13, 2007 Way to go, Linda! It's amazing what people will give us as their 'fix' isn't it? I've had that, too - where the piecer added new fabric on the wrong side, inside out. I figure that they must either have really small sewing spaces, or just really want to see the quilt done! Good job making lemonade from lemons... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadows4 Posted February 13, 2007 Report Share Posted February 13, 2007 The way you handled the problems on this quilt show how good a quilter you are, and you did excellent! I'm impressed with how it turned out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bekah Posted February 13, 2007 Report Share Posted February 13, 2007 Linda, it looks wonderful. You should be very proud of how it looks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbWetzel Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Linda.. You did a fantasitc job on this quilt. I love the stripping and the circles.... Just Beautiful!! Barb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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