Unquilting

Howdy!

One of the first Hug quilts done on this ng was for Ruth Evans; after extensive creative work was invested in putting all the blocks together, the top was sent to a novice machine quilter who did a rather "creative" job of the quilting. We knew it just wouldn't do as a memorial so a bunch of us took back the quilt and picked it apart; during the "un-quilting" the quilt traveled across the U.S., where individuals and, finally, a group of us on retreat in New Mexico finished the process (& our weekend) with the beautiful top intact. I brought it home, hired a professional quilter who added a new backing and batting, and sent it off to Donna in Idaho to present to Ruth's brother. Lesson: if it's just not right, un-quilt it and make it sew. ;-) It was worth it.

Baste it well & keep the quilt sandwich from bunching up on you again. Good luck!

R/Sandy

Trixie: Very few quilters have not had at least one major disaster. Find a few good movies and a nice wine, and you and your very dear dh can while away the hours enjoying the show, each other's company, and the wine. Okay, don't enjoy too much wine until you are finished! Good luck. PAT in VA/USA

This kind of disaster brings on 3 questions: Why did it happen? How can you fix it? and How do you keep it from happening again? Is your backing the culprit? We had one once that was a fine cotton but the rascal was soft (kind of mushy, actually) and it stretched outrageously. Is your batting the guilty party? A batting with a lot of poly seems to slip and slide more than cotton. Did you need to do more or better basting? Trixie, you will want to resolve those problems before you begin to quilt again. Ripping out quilting stitches once is awful; twice will surely make your eyebrows catch on fire. Polly

Trixie, you're not alone! I recently had to do the same thing after one was about 2/3 quilted. It's amazing how much longer it takes to unquilt than it does to quilt! I really don't have any words of wisdom for you, other than to hang in there. You ARE a good quilter - this is just a slight setback in the big scheme of things. And while it seems overwhelming right now, eventually you'll look at the finished product with pride and maybe even smile when you realize how beautiful it is (and the recipients will never know how close it came to being a UFO). Will you show us pictures when you're finished?

Another voice from the "Been there - done That" group. As others have said - try to find out the cause - I really think we've all learned more from our mistakes (finding out what NOT to do) than from our "accidental" successes! I machine quilt - but don't have a "frame set-up" - so I have to move the quilt frequently... I always check the back in the process. So far, I haven't had to frog=stitch much. Keep on workin' on it. You'll be glad you did when it's done. ME-Judy

One of the first quilts myself and a friend did together as novices was so appalling on the back that we put another back on top and tied it in a few places!!

Clever! Probably made it even sturdier than originally.

Argh. I feel your pain...literally...I've just been doing the same thing. I've never had a puckered or pleated backing until this one. And it was the first where I'd stitched in the ditch around several borders free motion on a frame (wow, that is difficult for me!) It was a pain to unstitch the meander, but not nearly as upsetting as having to frog stitch a good bit of those borders...

--Heidi

Well, it took hubby and I about 20 hours to "unquilt" the mess, and I am ever so grateful it is a smaller quilt and was not heavily quilted. Right now it is lounging out of my sight until I can stand to work on it again. In the meantime I am making tote bags, and they are turning out lovely.

I think I know what went wrong: I have a HandiQuilter2 frame, and no basting is necessary (yeah, right!). I've done more than a dozen quilts on the frame without basting and no problems, but this time I skipped sections when I was quilting and went back to them later and I think the backing fabric stretched in between sections, and the rest is history.

Thank you to everyone for your support. It is nice to know I am not alone!

Trixie

BTDT! 5 minutes in - 3 hours out.

Even if I am skipping a small section to go back to later, I pin baste. Saves aggravation - sometimes. :-)

Oh, so sorry to hear of your dilemma!!! BTDT! the last one i Un- quilted has been under my cabinet for almost a year! i'll get back to it eventually! good luck!

amy in CNY