Vertical back seam

[smd719]

Hope everyone had a wonderful, safe, and soon-to-be over Thanksgiving weekend!

If I have a vertical seam on the back, do you center the quilt top over it? I have room to offset the top. Am using Warm & White...smooth side up~~right???

Please advise and thanks.

[QuiltFaerie]

When I did vertical seams, yes, I would center the top over the seam. I took a class a MQX and was told that when the seam is horizontal it is actually more stable to quilt with. In that case, I don\'t worry about centering the seam.

I think the vertical or horizontal seam in the backing is more a matter of choice than anything but I could get corrected on that!

[barbm]

I don\'t know what the "quilt police" insist on, but I have quilted with seams running both vertically and horizontally, once both in the same backing! So far (knock on wood!) I haven\'t had any problem with quilting over the seams. The important part seems to be pressing the seam open and removing the selvage edge before quilting.

And I have both centered the top and offset it, depending on the needs/desires of my clients. I simply warn them that when a seam in a background is running parallel to the bars on my Millie, I won\'t be able to guarantee that the top will wind up centered on that seam, but I\'ll do my best. So far, everyone\'s been happy with that.

[Jeanette]

Vertical vs Horizontal seams in the backing - As a longarmer I prefer seams that are horizontal and don\'t worry about centering it. If the seam is vertical I will center the top unless the customer states otherwise. If there is a HUGE amt of fabric on the sides I will call the customer and explain that by not centering I can save her a lot of fabric. It depends on my client and how well I know her. I also piece a lot of my backs to use up stash so the backs are blocks and things with lots of different angled seams which is not a problem to quilt.

The Quilt Police (yes I know them personally, lol!) say that a vertical seam is preferable because the quilt won\'t pull apart in the middle seam from the strain of being tugged at the top by the person under it!!! I suppose that if it were handpieced and handquilted that it might not be as strong as our machine pieced and quilted articles and could pull apart. I know if quilts were all hand work I sure wouldn\'t be making them.

[ramona-quilter]

Most of my customers prefer an offset when the backing is a busy print. If there is a big backing and a lap quilt on the rollers, there is lots of backing on both sides. Most of them prefer for me to offset it, so they get bigger pieces of the backing leftover. I set it up so I have 4" of backing on the left side of the quilt and the bulk of the backing on the right side. I do this for horizontal or vertical seams. It has no impact on my quilting.

My customers appreciate it that I am able to return big chunks of their backing to them.

[PattyJo]

when our Northwest group got together, Linda R suggested that we put the seam horizontal as then the seam isn\'t causing a bump in the rollers all the way through the quilt and causing some rippling on the sides. I\'ve tried that since our meeting and she is right. If you can load your whole quilt (top & backer) horizontal rather than vertical, it is a much easier process and there is no bulge in the middle of the either the backer roller or the take up roller. There is much better tension on both sides also.

[DawnCavanaugh]

Stephanie,

You\'ve gotten great advice so far about the seam orientation. The quilt is definitely easier to load if the seam is horizontal, because it will lay parallel to the roller.

If, however, you have to put it vertical, here are a couple of hints to consider:

[*] Quilt preservationists recommend that a seam NOT be centered on a quilt back, because the quilt is often folded along its middle (another practice they advise against:)). The extra fabric along that center creates extra wear along the seam, causing the fabric to wear out more quickly.

[*] If possible, press the seam OPEN to reduce the bulk in that area, and make it easier to roll on to the frame.

[*] Remove the selvedge if it was not already removed from the seam. If the seam is not large enough to allow you to trim the selvedge away, then snip the selvedge edges about every four inches to allow that seam to "stretch" as you roll it on to the backing roller. As you roll, try to "compress" the seam by tightening it on the roller. Grab the seam with your hand, pointing your thumb in to the center of the table. Tighten the seam on the roller to squash those extra layers of fabric as much as possible.

This keeps the backing nice and flat, and greatly reduces the risk of puckers on the backing if you do nothing to that seam as it "piles up" on the roller itself.

Have fun!

[ffq-lar]

I have a customer who is an accomplished piecer who always gives me flat tops and backers that are perfectly squared-up and the correct size. (I hate a backer that is haphazardly seamed and then not trimmed--you know, with the extra inches left on and flapping in the breeze!!) Anyway, this smart lady seams her backers with the selvedges on and a generous 5/8 inch seam. Then she trims off the selvedges and presses open.

That is great, but here is the really smart tip---when she sews the seam she sets her DSM to the narrowist width if a zigzag stitch and the length to the regular length for sewing. The zigzag is barely evident and gives the seam a little more give. I don\'t know if this is a big help but her backers are a joy to work with. She can\'t remember where she learned this so whoever thought of it ---Thank You!!

[sewingupastorm]

well I got my lesson with a verticle seam last week. I had a quilt that was 112 square and the customer wanted a Baptist fan design with my Quilt EZ template. Well this template has to line up and each row toches the row just sewn so you NEED to line it up just right...........even more so than a patograph. Well the quilt had a verticle seam.

Everything was great till I got to about the halfway point. After this there was actually a bulge developng along that seam on what I had rolled and the sides were harder and harder to line up...........in the end I was tugging on the top. A horizontal seam would not have had this issue at all.

I do want to say that unless you have a design that needs this kind of nesting to be so accurate the verticle seam would not have been so problamatic. I do wonder though it fhat bulge could pull the quilt out of shape during quilting as in that it would eventlly pull that part of the quilt.

[ffq-lar]

From experience I have learned that when a backer is loaded with a vertical seam, the seam builds up on the rollers and you get a "hammock" effect on the adjacent pieces--the fabric will sag because the seam (two layers of fabric) is piling up and so tight there is no place for the side fabric to go.

If you must load a vertical seam, as you quilt each pass adjust the clamps carefully to make sure the back is advancing at the same rate as the top--with the center seam as the tightest place, the sides can do weird things and cause puckers or balloon out and down.

I have found thay what works best for me is to pin-baste the sides all along the quilting area to stabilize as I go. And some quilters will tuck a strip of batting or thin foam up under the take up roller to flatten each side separately--this will level the top and make stitching easier with no tucks in the backer. Just remember to remove the padding before you advance the quilt! It\'s startling to see that big old piece of batting in there if you forget to take it out--makes you look to see if the cat is still in the room or did you roll him up in the quilt!!

[smd719]

Well, I loaded the quilt and did a few passes. It\'s the Flag Star quilt I posted recently. I have nothing but tension problems...my husband says a "tension headache". He thinks he\'s funny since I used to get migraines! Anyway, I have to frog everything I\'ve done.

Yes, I\'m going to re-load horizontal. Live and learn.

Thanks.