what did I do wrong

[BethDurand]

Hi all,

I started out with straight quilt, but when I got to the bottom, it had torqued to the right (from the freehand side). I was doing a panto, and a partial float. Should I not float the top when doing a panto?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Beth

[Jeanette]

Beth,

I am probably the panto queen and I float them. I learned to always always always check the backing for being square. If it is a bit off when you roll the take up roller it compounds the problem and you will find the quilt wandering off to the side the closer you get to the bottom. Eyeballing it for square doesn\'t work. Fold it on the midline, lay it on the table and smooth any fullness or wrinkles out of it and then look at both ends, are they square? If your top isn\'t square then you start adjusting and pin basting when you roll it up for a fresh pass.

[BethDurand]

Hi Jeanette, thanks for the help. The quilt is done now, and I\'m less than thrilled with it to say the least. However, it\'s for a small boy, busy print, only the customer and I are going to notice it. I\'m still giving her a discount.

The backing was a 108" piece, and I had torn the edges to be sure that they were straight, so I don\'t think that\'s the problem. It surely was compounded as I quilted and advanced. I\'ll be sure to try your suggestion on the next one.

Thanks again for the help, and the support.

Beth

[ffq-lar]

Hi Beth--

Doing a full-float is my method of choice and I take good measurements of the width of the top (three places) split the difference and that measurement is what I try to match as I stitch down the top. I mark a couple of reference point on the leaders with a water-erase pen (usually the seam of the first border) and every time I advance the top I adjust it to match those points. Because the leaders are straight, the top advances straight and any piecing problems can be controlled in a smaller area before you are at the bottom with a skewed quilt. Not every problem can be fixed, of course, but this method seems to minimize them.

Being a newbie panto quilter--just did my second one--I have been stitching down the sides as I advance so I don\'t fold over the edges as I stitch. I wonder if the density of stitching on the panto may compound the torqueing problem. Lots of stitching in one direction only will make it creep to one side, I guess. I will watch for this on my next one.

[gable428]

Jeannette, if you are the "panto queen" can I be the "panto princess?" Beth, I float all my quilt tops no matter what I am doing and it\'s okay to do so with pantos. I make sure top and back are square and I baste down the sides as I go. Honestly, I haven\'t had problems when doing my own quilts, but have had a few problems when doing someone else\'s quilts and that\'s because their quilt wasn\'t square, etc.

[Guest Linda S]

I never float. That way, I\'m sure my quilt and my backing are centered all the way down, just as they should be.

Linda

[LynnQuilts]

I also never float my tops. Another thing to check for is if the center point on all your leaders lines up. I used to have that happen to me, my quilts would migrate to one side. I readjusted the center mark on my take-up roller and that helped a lot.

[Merryjo2003]

I don\'t float unless it\'s a hand sewn antique quilt that can\'t stand the stress of being on the rollers. I adjust the quilt as I advance, making sure it stays straight. Of course, I make sure the quilt is square to start with. I don\'t have trouble working in the fullness if the quilt is up to 1.5 inches off, but more than that, I tell the customer and they can fix the quilt before it\'s quilted or pay me to fix the quilt. Usually they understand the problem and fix it themselves. I tell them I can\'t quilt out the mistakes and it won\'t be able to be quilted without puckers that will show. Some don\'t care, but I don\'t want to have quilts I do look bad. Someone will see it and ask who quilted it at some point in time.

[kathymartinez]

This is a questin for Linda Rech... Could you explain how you mark you leaders, again? For some reason I can\'t visualize what your\'re doing, but it sounds like a good idea.

kathy

[ffq-lar]

Hi to my friend from the north, kathy!

After I have loaded (full float) the top, I use the horizontal channel locks to straighten the top on the batting. You can engage the locks and stitch the batting down, which will give you a straight line to use to line up the top--but I have found that if there are problems with the border, lining up at the very edge isn\'t a good idea. In that case, I eyeball the top straight, start in the middle of the first border seam and engage the horiz. locks. Then run the head to each side, patting and pushing and laying that seam straight. Pin it down. Now the top is square in relation to the first seam line. Smooth it all and use the vertical locks to check each side border seam and pin those in a few places.

When everything looks good on both sides I just use a water-erase pen to mark on the edge of the top (unused) leader the exact place the seam line lays. If there are two borders, I put two marks. As the top advances, I adjust the top with every pass so the marks match the seam lines all the way down. I didn\'t invent this--I have seen painter\'s tape wrapped around the leader and also sections of PVC pipe cut to fit and placed to mark the edges. I use the blue pen because it is always there and it removes easily.

Come visit some time!!

[sewingupastorm]

I am not sure why some people acutally float all their quilts...........enlighten me!

I only float my quilts when they are fragile as in antique or handsewn. I will also float odd shaped and very tiny quilts. Other than that I like to have the top on the roller.

[Barb Barna]

Hi Beth,

If you have torn the backing, it will not necessarily have sides that are perpendicular to the selvage. So if you measure to the middle of each selvage end and pin to the marked leaders, it may "torque" the backing fabric at some point during the quilting. I was always taught to cut the fabric, not tear, when preparing fabric for the back. Perhaps this is what is causing some of the problem.

Hope this makes sense.

[Jeanette]

I grew up with seeing the clerks tear the fabric and always thought it was supposed to give the straightest edge. Maybe fabric has changed over the years but I gave up tearing my backing after checking them against the measuring tape and finding some off as much as 3" . If you really examine fabric, especially some of the less expensive prints, you can see in many pieces the weave is not straight in the fabric. I see a lot of my customers using quilt shop quality for the tops and then using $2.00 yard sale fabric for the backs. These seem to be the biggest problem.

[jmyhogan]

I Always Float the quilt. That way if the top is not perfecyly square I can adjust it more easily as I quilt. I often do pantos. I hate cheap backings and do everything I can to Avoid cheap backings. If someone insists on a cheap backing I think it is best to make some notation in the written agreement about "no guarentees". Checking the backing for "squarness" before writing up the agreement is a good idea.

[chickenscratch]

Okay, the rip the fabric to square it does NOT work. My new customer quilt has a piece of wide backing fabric that she ripped to square it. It\'s over 2 1/2 inches wider on one end than the other. Beautiful fabric though; came from Fatbacks.

[Quilting Heidi]

Teresa,

It sounds to me like the grain is off. Fabric will only tear along the straigh of grain. You should be able to fix this by doing the following:

Have a partner take one corner and you take another corner, opposite side on diagonal. (Her top left corner, you bottom right corner). Gently pull. Repeating this working your way up the back should straighten the grain of the fabric.

This is an old sewing trick and I use it for heirloom sewing but it will work for this too.

Heidi

[Bonnie]

To add to what Heidi has said ...Once you get it square with pulling....you can steam (only) it in place so it doesn\'t bounce back to the odd shape....some fatbacks want to bounce back because of the bulk, but once ironed they lay right down and square.

[quiltaholi_518]

I just don\'t get the floating thing either! I do much of what you say, but eyeball the top placement and line it up with the rest of the quilt shich is all rolled up on the "quilt top" roller. I also like to put a smidge of tension on the top to keep it from puddling up in the center. I have tried to float and get too much movement in the top...........

[Stagecl]

I don\'t float either. I feel I have better control when the quilt is rolled. I agree with Caron...I get too much movement in the top.

I don\'t float my antique tops. I roll and then make sure there is little tension on the top when quilting.

Cheryl