Squaring up after quilting

[Deb G.]

Hello friends, When I have finished quilting a quilt in the past, I have 'squared up' the corners, trimmed edges and attached bindings. Once last year a wall hanging (not as big as GPDU) did not hang flat - it bulged out on one side. I learned THEN that I need to more carefully measure the width (top and bottom and middle) and length (side, side and middle). All the measurements should be with as little variation (per direction) as possible.
Now I am ready to 'square up' this quilt, with diamond borders carefully pieced to allow for the 1/4" seam with the binding...and I discover that one side is longer by 3/8" and the bottom is wider than top by 1/2".
Yikes!
What suggestions do you have? The goal is to hang this quilt, so I'm concerned there will be a bulging side or it will just look wonky on the wall.
Alternatively, I can just place it on a bed...as a display piece.

In addition - if there are any references folks have to proper 'squaring' technique, I would be pleased to hear of them.

Thanks so much! I appreciate the skills and talents of all of you!

[Helen W.]

[QUOTE=DebbiG;n895211]Hello friends, When I have finished quilting a quilt in the past, I have 'squared up' the corners, trimmed edges and attached bindings. Once last year a wall hanging (not as big as GPDU) did not hang flat - it bulged out on one side. I learned THEN that I need to more carefully measure the width (top and bottom and middle) and length (side, side and middle). All the measurements should be with as little variation (per direction) as possible.
Now I am ready to 'square up' this quilt, with diamond borders carefully pieced to allow for the 1/4" seam with the binding...and I discover that one side is longer by 3/8" and the bottom is wider than top by 1/2".
Yikes!
What suggestions do you have? The goal is to hang this quilt, so I'm concerned there will be a bulging side or it will just look wonky on the wall.
Alternatively, I can just place it on a bed...as a display piece.

In addition - if there are any references folks have to proper 'squaring' technique, I would be pleased to hear of them.

Thanks so much! I appreciate the skills and talents of all of you![/QUOTE]

Hi Deb,
The idea of placing on the bed, is definitely the easiest.
Check your measurements of units. Is the bottom border the correct size as pattern wants. If yes, then the problem was
probably in the pieced top, before the border. If no, the border is just bigger, the check the seams. Are they all 1/4 inch?
Look at both sides. Since it is bigger overall, that means some seams are probably too narrow. Maybe the ones that you
could not see as you were sewing. On the bottom near the feed dogs.
The technique you described for add the borders to make the pieced top square works. You take the average of the measurements
when you CUT your borders. Pieced border are different. A lot of quilters block their quilts and literally pull them into square using T pins when the quilt is wet. Then let it dry and it keeps that size. Are you going to quilt the quilt yourself? If you plan to send it
to a longarmer to do, you could send them a picture or discuss it with them. Many a longarmer has had to deal with borders
that are way out of alignment.
Maybe you could rip out the stitching and make the diamonds 1/8 smaller on the width of the diamond for the last 4 diamonds.
Just draw the rectangle the same height but 1/8 narrower in width. If you know how to foundation paper piece it would not
be hard to draw the diamond on graph paper.

Pictures alway help with trouble shooting. Can you post a picture. Maybe some other ideas would come to mind.
HelenW

[Barbara B.]

All excellent advice here. My response would have been “it’s in the seam allowances”.