How do I keep my quilt square

The best way to keep things square, if the quilt is square before quilting, is to quilt at an even density; but, more than that, to keep the quilting even, for as much of the time as you can. This is rather difficult to explain (though I could show you in no time!). Suppose your quilt is a piece of tartan with fairly evenly spaced red lines, yellow lines, green lines and blue lines. You would quilt all red lines first, then the yellow lines, then the green lines and then the blue lines. This would mean that the quilt had no opportunity to get wavy. You will have to translate this into whatever patterns you are going to use; but, if you - for instance- put a daisy in the top left corner, put the next daisy in the bottom right corner rather than top right ... and so on, maintaining a balance all the time. If you are doing an all over pattern, try to cover as much space as you can in one go eg a whole diagonal rather than one corner.

Cut your borders from the length of the fabric if you can, do any joining with a diagonal join. Measure across the quilt and from top to bottom to get the length of your borders. Ease or stretch these lengths, rather than just sewing them onto the sides of the quilt.

HTH . In message , MaleQuilter writes

Do you measure frequently along the way -- to make sure you stay square from the get-go?

How do you add borders? Chop off a piece... sew it on... then trim to fit? Sure hope NOT! This is one of the easiest ways to end up with a quilt that is very wonky (hee hee... a techincal term!). You should measure at at least 2 (and 3 or 4 is better) spots on your quilt, then average the measurements together (Hopefully they are the same... but rarely are they!). Cut THAT length for your border... easing as needed.

My only advice is to measure.... measure... measure. Make sure each block is square and accurate. Make sure each row is square and accurate. Cut carefully and straight.

Sorry I don't have any magic answers.

One little trick that I use is to cut your binding on the crosswise grain so it will have a bit of stretch. Lay the quilt out flat and- using small safety pins- mark any areas that don't lay flat starting and ending about 2 inches from the wobble. When you sew on the binding (sewing the first round by machine- not the final stitching) you can stretch the binding a bit and it will make the tiniest of gathers and flatten out those wobbles. This only works for small boo-boos.... large waves will need more intensive treatment.

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

On Jul 5, Kate in MI said, "How do you add borders? Chop off a piece... sew it on... then trim to fit? Sure hope NOT! "

I sounds worse when you say it that way. (LOL)

I thought that if I cut my borders "over length" that I would have extra in case sewing it on changed its length. I was careful to make sure that opposite sides of the quilt center were the same length before I started, and tried to sew the binding on with about the same level of tension (making sure I did not stretch the fabric as I sewed the binding on).

It sounds like that was all wrong.

Are you saying that I should cut the binding the average length based on three or four measurements, match the ends of the binding to each end of the quilt side, and then stretch or ease the quilt center or binding evenly over the distance between the matching ends?

I know that was a long question. It's amazing the number of things you do not know when you are a real beginner.

Jerry in North Alabama

Yes -- measure in 2 or 3 spots across the quilt (both length & width) and then cut your border strip to the exact measurement (average the 2 or 3 if they are different.)

Then ease or stretch a bit so that you have your opposite sides the exact same size. Otherwise... you could end up with opposite sides different (even an inch or more) and if you are hanging the quilt... it will definitely show. On a bed... not quite as apparent.

Good luck!

unfortunately that's not the way it works, if you cut the borders to a fixed size, determined by the quilt top so far, not the pattern, then make the ends match, you should get a better result.

You've not mentioned whether or not you square up after quilting. I was taught to do it this way, though I've seen many instructions that say trim backing and batting level with top. I've not made many quilts, but so far they've all been flat and this is what I've done.

cheers Anne

Hey! Just love all these tips. I have a great book which has 1000 tips all catorgorised, submitted by named 'famous' quilters, which is a terrific reference book. This group must have written it! My little tip - probably said differently above, is use the same quilting coverage in the borders as in the centre. I see alot of quilts where the centre is heavily done, then the quilter gets tired of quilting and does little or nothing in a 4" border. It's never goin' to hang straight.

-- Cheers Bronnie

Howdy!

First I square up the quilt top, then I measure for the borders (if any), kinda' like this at the bottom half of the page:

Then I square it up again. To help it Finish as a "squared" quilted quilt, I pin baste, a lot, closely, carefully. Lots of basting, I don't want this thing shifting. Baste, baste, baste. I quilt from the center towards the outer edges in a spiral. When I get to the borders I try to be very careful to not stretch that part of the quilt when adjusting the quilt hoop (I hand quilt); if I'm being extra careful I add an extra (wide) border to the real border so my hoop hangs onto that extra fabric, less stress & stretching on the quilt body. After the quilting (& removing that extra wide border strip) I sew a line all the way around the quilt to lock in my quilting stitches. Kinda' like this, except I use the regular machine foot: I square it up again, just like this lesson at Qlt. Univ., slidinga long ruler along the edge, with the table supporting the quilt bodyso it doesn't stretch or pull off true. I make plenty of binding, not measuring it too closely to thequilt because I've already squared up the quilt before the bindingstage. As I sew on the binding I keep it a tiny bit tight, just to makesure the quilt sandwich stays the same size/dimension, squared up. This is what works for me. YMMV It's that basting to keep the quilting even that makes a big difference for me to have a "squared up" Finished quilt.

Good luck!

R/Sandy-- watching it try to rain, again, in n.Tx. -- glub-glub

On 7/5/07 5:20 PM, in article snipped-for-privacy@q75g2000hsh.googlegroups.com, "MaleQuilter" wrote:

Oooo, this in one of my favorite classes to teach because I know some secret tricks! LOL! Even my beginning students get excellent results with this method. Let me see if I can summarize it for you.

1) Before even trying to attach the borders, I fold the pressed quilt top NEATLY in quarters, raw seams inside, checking that intended center spots are really in the center. Then I line up the folded seams to both the top/bottom and then to the sides. This gives me a quick check that my edges are (within reason) roughly the same size as the center seams. I used to do this with the quilt unfolded and they were just too big. The weight of the big tops alone would skew the fabric too much to accurately check without a table to lay the monster flat! The results I get with the 1/4 fold are just as accurate. If the centers and edges are more than about 1/2" different net, I go back and look at the piecing to see if something is off somewhere. I do NOT proceed with the following steps if I am not happy with the overall squareness of the top itself! 2) To attach the borders, I fold the quilt in 1/2 only, raw seams inside again, and lay it across a flat surface so I can get to the center area. Lets start with the sides, so fold the top to the bottom. This exposes 1/2 of the length of the sides. I fold each border strip in 1/2 also, wrong side OUT and gently finger press to mark the center. (Note: Do each border strip separately.) I lay the folded in half border on top and down the center of the folded in half quilt top, carefully matching the center folds and gently smoothing the border out to the edge of the quilt. You should now have the folded smooth straight border, wrong side out, laying on top of and down the center of half of the folded quilt top. (Tough to describe! Hope I was clear enough.) 3) With the folded border on top of the folded quilt, turn back the ends of the border where they meet the raw edge of the quilt top. Again, gently finger press to mark these ends of the border. Do NOT trim the excess at this point. Fold each border edge back separately, not as a nested group. You have now marked the ends of your border. 4) Now take your border, with the folded 1/2 and folded back edges, and bring each edge fold up to the center fold and gently press these 1/4 and 3/4 marks. Do each side independently again, not nested or wrapped around each other! Your unattached border should now be shaped like a "W" or "M", not a "U". You should now have a total of five folds in the border, marking both ends, and the 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 marks, measured exactly to of the center of your quilt top! Set your two border pieces aside. 5) Do the same folding techiniques on your quilt top, starting right side out and bringing the edges to the center. Don't forget to do the "M" or "W" folding, each side back to the center. Your quilt top will have three folds at the 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 marks, and your raw edges are your edges! By folding the quilt top RST and the border WST, your folds will automatically nestle when you go to line them up for sewing. 6) To actually attach the border, place the quilt top and each border, RST, line up the folds and pin as necessary. Ease in any minor size difference between each set of 1/4 marks. There should not be many. You will find that by leaving the excess fabric on the ends, it gives you a nice straight fold to line up the edge of your quilt top to, which gives a more square result at the corners as well. Sew with your usual 1/4" seam allowance. Make sure to press your side borders as needed after attaching and then you can remove any excess on the edges using a nice square up ruler. 7) To repeat for the top and bottom borders, repeat from #2 above, but fold the sides together, including the newly attached side borders.

Where is the tape measuring you ask? Ha, silly boy! I don't need no stinking measurements! LOL, Sorry, a little punchy here. Personally, I have found that actually taking ruler measurements, writing them down, trying to divide them, etc., was just a bunch of wasted time I didn't need to spend. Does anyone really care if your top measures 37 and 3/16? Basically, if your quilt top edges are within reason to the size of your centers, both horizontally and vertically, and you have marked the individual 1/4, 1/2 and

3/4 locations on all of the sides to be attached, all will be fine. Your borders will lie flat and your top will be square.

HOWEVER, you still need to follow the basic principles of matching your center dimensions and evenly distributing any excesses. The above method covers those critical points. Some of the worst problems I have seen with borders is when they are not probably measured or marked. Even when you think that the edges are the same length as each other, if they don't match the center, (within reason) the borders will be wavy; if one quarter or, worse one half of the border fabric shifts while being sewn, moving more fabric to one end or the other, your borders will be wavy. Once you try the method I have outlined above, I think you'll be flying through those borders.

Good luck Lorraine in La Center

thanks for that info, Lorraine. i've copy/pasted/given-you-full-credit into notepad and saved to my puter for reference. brain isnt up to fully understanding it right now without a quilt at the ready. cheers, jeanne

I hope that you mis-typed the next to the last paragraph here..... We are talking borders, not binding....

I always measure the borders to the quilt, and mark centers and quarter points, by folding both quilt and borders. Always fold borders single layer, but I do cut them both at the same time-- to make sure they are exactly the same length. Often I fold the quilt top in half, fold the borders in half (singly), line up folds, then lay the border along the center, and then mark/cut the ends even.

If you keep everything square as you go, then the finished top should be square. Remember when you sew the unpieced border to the pieced top, every one of those seams is a chance for "stretching" of the top. For that reason, I usually cut borders on the lengthwise (non-stretchy) grain, and sew with the border on the top, the pieced edge on the bottom.

Works for me.

Pati, > On Jul 5, Kate in MI said, "How do you add borders? Chop off a

Pati, why put the border on top and pieced top on the bottom when sewn? i'm sure this is clear as could be but my coffee is too hot to drink it and thus wake up the grey matter. jeanne

Beats me, Jerry. My quilts are for beds so I don't worry about a little waviness. Besides, if someone looks at the quilt on the bed, the 3 kitties laying on it will distract 'em from noticing the quilt's wonkiness by going into their "I'm a cute kitty" rub begging routines. I'm glad you got lots of tips from other people though. Debra in VA See my quilts at

I'm now ready to machine quilt my project. Thanks to all of you for providing very usefull tips here and in the discussion about sewing straight seams.

My quilt is far from perfect but it is almost exactly square (within a quarter of an inch), the seams are even and pressed flat and it even looks good on the back side. I will post picture after I get it quilted, bound, and name tagged.

Thank you for answering all of my "beginner" questions.

Jerry in North Alabama