Final Quilting Stage Puckering Problem

[Hannelore N.]

Help! The final border of my 44" quilt is puckering more than I've ever seen. The interior portions of the quilt are heavily quilted in spots, but I don't want to quilt this border too heavily because it contains embroidered words. I wanted to do a cross-hatch pattern, but since it is not really laying flat the lines don't stay straight. I could stipple to try to get it to lay flat but I'm not sure it will work. I can also remove this border, cut and re-attach it if that is the best solution. I've attached a picture. Any advice would be helpful.

[Eileen K.]

Jenster,
How did you attach the border? It looks like you may have eased it in. If so, you need to remove it and re-attach. Find the middle of the border and the middle of the area you want to attach it to and match them up. Pin from the center out. That should take care of the puckering.
As to not quilting as much; if you want the finished quilt to lay flat, the quilting should have the same density throughout.

[Eileen K.]

Thanks for your answer. No, I didn't ease it when attaching it originally although the embroidery caused a little waviness now that I think of it. When finishing the top, I measured across the center of the quilt and cut the border strips to that measurement, pinning as you recommended. I know that heavy quilting causes some shrinkage, and the puckering seemed to worsen after quilting the gold border just inside. If I do remove it and re-attach, I am a little afraid that the border will end up too small - have you ever had that happen?

[Terry K.]

Jenster, I agree with Eileen about the quilting needing to be dense in the outer border. You might be able to use silk thread and do a tiny stipple to get it dense enough. You might need to ease the edge a bit into your binding if you find it still has a little wave. Your project is awesome.

[Margo C.]

The problem is definitely the dense quilting you've done in the center. Even if you take the top border off and shorten it, your backing will still have a lot of fullness in it and will have puckers after it's quilted. I assume that you are quilting on a domestic machine? It may be possible to shrink the border by spraying it with starch and working the fullness in with your fingers and letting it get completely dry before you try to do any more sewing. You will need to also treat the backing if you are not working on a long-arm.
You could also try to pin the fullness in before you start sewing.

In the future, try to plan your quilting designs so that the density is even over the entire quit.
However, you might want to consider basing your entire quilt with Superior's Vanish thread before you start any quilting if you want to add some denser quilting in parts of it.
That will help keep the fullness evenly spaced so that you can just deal with small areas at a time, and the thread will just wash out when the quilt is washed.

Good luck! And we would love to see your finished product!

[Margo C.]

Finished! Thank you all for your advice on that final border. I ended up removing, ironing it, and reattaching it. Each border turned out to be about 3/4" too long in total. I had been so worried about the corners "flaring out" that I overcompensated on my mitered-corners, making the quilt a tiny bit circular rather than a perfect square. I blocked it before attaching the binding.

When I asked my original question I had already "stay stiched" just inside the black border. When I reattached the border it ended up looking okay on the back because there was already a line of stitching there. As predicted, I created a couple of folds on the back but was able to limit it to the first border I quilted (I was more careful with the others). If I make a long label I can cover the trouble spots! But since I tried something new with each border on this quilt, I may leave the puckers on the back to remind me of the lesson learned.

I've attached a photo detailing one of the corners to show how nice my story ends! I'll put a full picture up in the quilt gallery.

Thanks again for your advice.

[Margo C.]

Oh, Jennifer! It looks WONDERFUL and you learned a lot with these borders! Thanks for posting your finished quilt!

[Margo C.]

Oh, Jennifer! It looks WONDERFUL and you learned a lot with these borders! Thanks for posting your finished quilt!

Ditto from here too, it is GREAT to see the problem solved, after being asked to think about the problem.

[Lynn K.]

Jennifer, it is really lovely finished. Thanks for sharing your before, between, and after!

Lynn