What went wrong here? How did this happen?

[AnnHenry]

The backing ends up being 2 3/8" longer on the left side of the quilt than on the right.

1. The quilt backing was pinned at the top and bottom. It was squared off perpendicular to the center seam.

.....Q: Should I have squared off perpendicular to the selvedge edges instead?

.....Q: Did the customer perhaps stretch (or almost gather) one side of the pieced backing? Is it relevant that the backing was pieced and not just one piece of fabric?

2. I did not "square off" the quilt top, or even examine it all that carefully, for that matter, but when laid out to check for size of batting and backing, it did not draw my attention.

3. The quilt top was pinned then sewed at the top and the sides were basted as I went down. Bottom basted down before last row of stitching.

4. The only thing that happened unusual was that I forgot a partial row of the panto when I ran out of thread. I had to reorder and wait for delivery. Once I returned to the quilt, I made the mistake of starting a new row instead of finishing the old row, but of course, I didn't discover that until after I unloaded the quilt. Then I had to partially reload it to finish that panto row. However, the "repaired" pantograph row does not seem to be the problem.

The back does not have tucks but is more "full" on the short side, obviously.

Any and all observations will be appreciated. This forum is so wonderful.

[ramona-quilter]

Gosh AnnHenry, I would think that if the backing is off by that much, it would not have rolled up without some wrinkles that you would have noticed.

It looks like the backing is long enough for the quilt, thank goodness. But I would like to know what happened, too. Because this could have been awful if the backing is shorter than the front. phew.

It happened to me once on a wide back and I had to call my customer and tell her I needed more backing. I later found out that the backing was marked as 108" wide but after you got past the white part of the selvage to the burgundy fabric, there was really only 103" of usable backing.

[ffq-lar]

Hi Ann,

Perhaps the two pieces of backer were seamed with extra on one side as you have thought.

Here is a hint (that I probably picked up here long ago)---if at all possible, when a backer is pieced, load with that seam running parallel to the rollers--that is, horizontally. Then you won't have as many problems with sag on one side from an inaccurately seamed backer.

I am still wondering how your extra fabric happened but don't fret unless there are tucks on the back. That quilt is one unit now and no matter what happened it can be blocked and will lay flat.

[AnnHenry]

Thanks, Linda x 2

It seems to me that it has to be that the two pieces of the backing were not identical in length and that a longer piece was joined to a shorter piece.

I do know that I originally tried to square up the backing by pulling threads, and that didn't work. That may have been my first clue . . .

I think that I might just re-sew all of her center backing seams from now on. It might just be easier in the long run. I have had no problems quilting my own quilts with pieced backs, but I meticulously measure before joining two identically-sized pieces. I'm going to come up against things I never thought of in this business, huh!

[quiltmonkey]

Originally posted by AnnHenry

I'm going to come up against things I never thought of in this business, huh!

That is the understatement of the year!!! :P

[Renae]

:D:D You are soooooooooo right Shana...........we learned.

Renae