World Wide Quilting Page
Question of the Week
Question for the week of June 2, 2003:
Our question this week comes TICKLSME:
How do I correct a quilt block that in no way lays flat? I have taken it
apart twice and have had no luck at convincing it the lay flat.
Judy :
If this is the first block you've done in this pattern, you may want to make sure the dimensions given are correct by cutting the shapes -minus the seam allowances - from paper and setting them together. Sometimes there's a typo in instructions/templates for a design.
LakesideQuilter :
Your seams are not accurate or you did not cut it accuratly OR your both... Sorry.
If you have bias edges, sometimes you just need to re-cut and start over. The piece stretched.
Pat :
I would use this one for a pillow top and start all over if you have enough fabric. I have found that a mistake keeps repeating itself if I unsew more than once.
Kathy :
It really depends on why it does not lay flat. I had a LeMoyne star that did not lay flat because of bias stretching. Steam really did take care of that one. At least it made a molehill out of a mountain and quilting tamed the rest.
But if seams that are not accurate are the cause, then ripping out and correcting those seams would be the fix.
Off hand I cannot think of other reasons for the block not lying flat, but I think there could be others.
birdless :
I would either use steam and press it as flat as possible then plan on a lot of quilting to keep it down or try re- doing it with the grain of the fabric in different directions than I used the first time. Sometimes the straight grain of the fabric needs to be matched up to bias edges to control stretch.
World Wide Quilting Page * Question of the Week