Venting

Most of the quilt tops I work on are easily quilted -- not all are quilts from Hell. But three problems occur more often to make the quilting more difficult.

One is the border that ruffles and waves because it was cut larger than the inner top. As the borders are sewn to the top, the quilter eases them in. Everything looks ok, but when the quilt is pinned to a frame, it's more obvious, and the fullness of the borders makes for problem quilting. Even with huge amounts of pinning, tucks and pleats usually occur.

The second is the border that is too small for the inner top, In this case the inner top has been eased in as the border and top were sewn together. It's like a cup, the borders are taut and the inner top bags down. Again, careful pinning and sometimes fluffy batting can abate the problem but even so there usually are some areas of pleats and overlaps as the quilting continues. I have even had to take a quilt off half-way through quilting and ask the customer for help.

A third problem arises when the quilt is not square -- I have had up to a difference of several inches on both sides. This makes it tough to put a pantograph on evenly, and usually if I am aware of it, I recommend having it done free hand so that it won't be so obvious. (By the way, the backing should also be square. As parallelogram backings roll onto the bar, as much as a foot in width can be lost.) Squaring up a quilt should also elimate the hour glass shape many quilts acquire with the top and bottom being several inches wider than the middle.

I know no one wants to hear it (including me sometimes), but careful measurement would probably eliminate all three problems. Measuring an inner top in three places, cutting borders to one's unique quilt top and not to what the pattern says, and squaring up quilts and backings would make any quilter's life easier.