Straight quilt shrinking more on one side

[jobuck]

Hi Everyone: I am having a problem with a quilt I am 16 inches from the bottom edge. I am 1 1/4 inch longer on the left side. It is a bordered log cabin. I do have a centering tape on the machine but it was not much use as the logs were not always"even" all the way across. It was quilting beautifully with an Emerson plume pattern. Other than taking out about 12" or so and scooching the left side up some ---what can I do? I guess more importantly: what causes this and how can it be minimized. I checked the quilt for smoothness all the way down. I did not use the channel locks periodically----I PROPBABLY SHOULD HAVE. I just thought it was going along great. Thinking must be the problem zone. Any suggestion are appreciated. Meanwhile "frogging " is calling me. Jo-Ellen

[DawnCavanaugh]

Jo-Ellen,

Sorry to hear about the frog stitching!

Without looking over your shoulder to see what could have happened, here are a few ideas:

[*] Do you happen to be left-handed? When winding the quilt on to its roller, it is common for a quilter to "over-manipulate" the quilt on the side corresponding to his or her dominant hand, often twisting and smoothing it tighter than the opposite side. Working the fabric slightly more with your dominant hand can translate into quite a bit of fabric movement over a large quilt.

[*] Check the quilt as you load it to make sure that all seams in the quilt which are "horizontal" stay parallel to the rollers. Manipulate the fabric to keep these seams straight.

[*] Did you happen to check the quilt\'s measurements ahead of time to determine if the quilt was square to begin with? It may not have been, especially if it\'s a log cabin where all those seams along one edge can be stretched as the border is added.

[*] It\'s important to keep the side borders in place on the batting and backing as you advance the quilt, to prevent them from "walking" down the side as you roll. Try using your hands to gently smooth the quilt from the body out toward the edges, then stabilize the side borders with pins or machine tacking stitches to keep the generous border "in line" with the body of the quilt.

As for your current dilemma, after you\'ve done the frog stitching, you might want to try some temporary spray baste on the batting before rolling the quilt any further, then use your hands to gently manipulate the fabric into position on the batting before you quilt the next rows.

Bonnie\'s spray starch method may also help you ease in that left side.

Hope this helps!