How to fix wavy border?

[Rita C.]

Finished a wall hanging yesterday (hanging sleeve and all!), but the border does not lay flat. I'm pretty sure it's because the center is fairly densely quilted, and I left the 3 1/2 in border unquilted (lazy). Do I have to be good and take off the binding before adding quilting in the border?

[Rita C.]

I really don't know if there is a quilt police law about this but I have put the binding on quilts before I finished the quilting without any problems. I do always use bias binding. I suppose perhaps it might be a problem if the binding is straight of grain (not as stretchy) and you quilt the borders very, very heavily then perhaps the border would shrink down more than the binding could and leave it puckery? Good luck, whatever you decide!

[Nancy R.]

I also do a lot of quilting after putting on the binding, although I usually finish the border quilting first. The biggest consideration is how close the quilting will be to the binding. If you are quilting very close to the binding, the thickness of the binding can get in the way of the presser foot, whether you are using a free motion foot or a walking foot. Also, if on the back your binding is stitched a little ways inside of the front binding stitching (does that make sense?), then quilting near the edge of the binding on the front will go through the binding on the back. So, if you are planning on doing very dense quilting in the border, which would probably require you to quilt close to the binding, it's probably best to remove the binding first.

BTW, I usually cut my binding on straight-of-grain and haven't had problems.

Nancy

[Rita C.]

I would usually quilt the border before putting on the binding. I have used straight binding most of the time and it has been fine. Margo just recommended steam blocking to me for a small wall hanging that I had done. If you go to the topic 'What ya gonna do this weekend" it is there on about page 4. There is also a website she recommended that might help in blocking your quilt to eliminate wavy edges and here's the link.

http://www.hgtv.com/video/alex-ander...deo/index.html

I couldn't view this because it is not possible from outside the US - but Margo's instructions were enough for me to figure out what to do and it worked really well.

Good luck.

Rita.

[Margo C.]

I would usually quilt the border before putting on the binding. I have used straight binding most of the time and it has been fine. Margo just recommended steam blocking to me for a small wall hanging that I had done. If you go to the topic 'What ya gonna do this weekend" it is there on about page 4. There is also a website she recommended that might help in blocking your quilt to eliminate wavy edges and here's the link.

http://www.hgtv.com/video/alex-ander...deo/index.html

I couldn't view this because it is not possible from outside the US - but Margo's instructions were enough for me to figure out what to do and it worked really well.

Good luck.

Rita.

The link Rita referred to above just shows how Alex pins her quilts into her carpet to baste them. The directions I give for blocking a finished quilt are here:
http://forum/this-and-that-quilting-...o-this-weekend
Just scroll down a couple of posts below the photo of Rita's wall hanging.

[Margo C.]

Thanks everyone! I did block a quilt once, with good results. Maybe I'll try that first, and if it doesn't get rid of the waves, bite the bullet and take the binding off and do it right.