Quilters Nightmare

I knew it was going to happen just didn't know when. 

Been warned by many a long arm quilter, one day you will receive a quilt that is totally out of square and will give you nightmares, ruffles at the bottom.

It finally happened to me.  A friend and customer, bless her heart, has 2 quilt tops from a (deceased) friends stash.  My friend Margie wants to have them quilted and she is giving to the children of the woman that has passed. 

So loaded the first one, and thought there was going to be a problem about half way through the stitching the quilt kept shifting, puckering etc. but I thought I would be able to get it to lay flat when I got to the bottom of the quilt.  Boy was I wrong.  There was so much puckering and ruffling there was no way to make it look good.  Called Margie, told her the problem and she was going to come over today to look and see what can be done.  The only answer to this problem, is to remove from quilting table, take out as much stitching as necessary, remove border square up quilt and reattach border and then finish quilting.


Now I admit, I am one stubborn person, and cant stand things unfinished.  I am part German and it shows sometimes in my stubbornness, so instead of waiting for Margie, I kept going back to the quilt still on my long arm table and folded and refolded where the ruffles were, and knew I just had to try and fix this.  Couldn't wait for Margie, so I removed the bottom border, while still on table, and removed the extra stitching needed to give me enough room to rework the quilt, square up as much as possible.  Took of the table, did the necessary repairs and adjustments and reloaded to the long arm.  Finished it.  Its not perfect but presentable anyway.

pretty, but not quilter quality fabrics used, which might be why the material kept shifting, pulling and puckering. 

this is the bottom and its pretty wavy, but livable.

Ladies for the sake of your long arm quilter, please please please, make sure your quilts are squared up before bringing them to your quilter and oh yes, don't use poor quality fabrics.  If I didn't know Margie so well, I would have stopped mid quilt and given it back to her and asked her to fix the problem before continuing.  But I really thought it would not be such a problem and I continued on.  Lesson Learned?, you bet.

Anyway, after all the frustration and hard work, it is finished and like I said presentable.  After washing one time you will never even see the pulls and puckers. 

I hope she is happy with the end results.  Regardless, I did my best with what I had to work with.

Lets hope the second quilt doesn't have the same problem.   If it does, not gonna quilt it until either squared up or suggest hand tying.