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keeping it straight while turning


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Please help, what am I doing wrong? Every time I turn a quilt, for example, so that I can use my giant CL template to make a border design, one end is droopy. Why won\'t they lay flat again? Should I be trimming the edges, what?

Granted, this quilt just about killed me, thankfully it\'s my own, but this was really the last straw.

Thanks for your help.

Beth

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Hi Beth,

I seldom turn my tops, but when I do and end up with the dreaded drooping, I even out the stitching area with folded batting or clean towels stuffed in the take-up roller.

I sometimes stuff the padding under the front take-up roller because the padding is easier to adjust --no running around the back--and when you advance the top the padding falls to the floor in front of you instead of rolling up in the top like a sleeping cat!

Since the area is fairly stable because of the other stitching on the top, making just that one area (the border) flat using any method you choose would work. I don\'t know why taking the top off and reloading causes this problem.

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Oh thank you both!

I freely admit that this was probably not the squarest back because I ended up being short, and had to take it off, and take some off the sides so that I would have enough. However, just knowing that I\'m not the only one that this happens to makes me feel so much better! I thought Iwas just an idiot! Okay, so that\'s still a possibility.

Have a lovely day.

Beth

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Like Linda a rarely turn a quilt....its not one of my favorite things to do and avoid it with all costs.

But, if and when I do, I take it off the frame and cut all the excess off the sides that now will become the top and bottom....and make sure all is flat (ironing this helps) and then I cut leaving about 4 or more inches of backing fabric and batting, on these two sides....repinning with the now straight edges onto the leaders.

Also I am assuming that you have basted the side edges as you went so that you won\'t have to baste those before you can start sewing.

I don\'t have a CL, but when drawing out the stencils, I don\'t seem to have crooked borders...and looking down the frame all seems to be straight.

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Beth,

I had the same problem until I started pinning the unquilted borders before rolling to the next section....I learned this from Myrna ....pin every three or four inches before rolling. If I know I\'m going to turn the quilt, like Bonnie I square the whole backing before loading, and then trim the excess off of the quilted sides before reloading.

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Hi Beth,

If you leave those 2 borders to the last, after quilting everything else, you\'re sure to have extra fullness in them. Try doing the top border first, then stablilize the rest of the quilt with SID, working your way to the bottom. Then quilt the bottom border. Take the quilt off and turn it, Quilt the 2 borders and then finish off the inside. By stabilizing the quilt first, you\'ll be keeping everything square.

Make SURE you baste down the sides as you do the stabilizing SID. If your borders are extra wide, you may have to do some pin-basting as you go too.

BTW, when stablizing the interior of the quilt with SID, I always work from the center of the row to the outside, so no fullness is being trapped in the center.

Hope that made sense!

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ROFLMAO - a sleeping cat. Oh Linda, you crack me up. :D :D :P

And that is exactly what it looks like when you stuff that batting in under the takeup roller.

I never thought of taking up that slack on the back roller. I, too, suffer from sag after turning if I forget to pin baste the sides as I roll. Of course, I mean my quilts sag. ;)

Great idea about stuffing that batting in the back roller. Thank you.

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