When I started making quilts to hang on the wall, I was working with smaller quilts that didn’t seem to present problems of waves and unevenness. I had a quilt in the 2013 Quilt Odyssey show and I attended the show. When I saw the quilt hanging there, I was a little horrified at the wave I saw and how it looked a little crooked. It also seemed a little wiggly at the top. There it was, hanging in a prestigious show (it has since decided to close the Quilt Odyssey shows) with all those amazing quilts.
Perspective in Threads completed in 2012 before I fixed the binding and after I fixed the rod pocket.
I wanted to grab it and run! LOL I couldn’t understand it. When it was home and on the table it was flat and I guess maybe not as square as I originally thought, but certainly not so wiggly/wavy. When I got it home I took a hard look at it, did some measuring, square measuring, etc. I realized a couple of things attributed to the wiggles and waves and most of them had to do with the rod pocket! Here is my analysis of that little quilt.
- The rod pocket was slightly too narrow and so it had been scrunched a little on their rod. It was sewn so there was no extra space on the back to prevent the rod from poking the top out.
- The rod pocket was not level in relation to the quilt itself.
- The binding wasn’t done very well.
- It measured correctly with even sides and top and bottom though there was a very slight difference between the top and the bottom length. It was relatively square and there really wasn’t much I could do about any minor unsquareness because of the way I had used the printed border. I don’t think that is a problem.
- It is basically a whole cloth quilt with a border and quilted well and evenly, so it didn’t pull it out of whack even though I “quilted it to death”.
So there you go. The primary problems were the binding that could have been better and the poorly done rod pocket. I have since replaced both on that quilt, but it has not shown since.
After that, I started carefully measuring the rod pocket when I cut it out and when I applied it so it is even from the top. Instead of 4 inches I make a 5 inch or even more pocket, making sure that it is put on in such a way that there is more fabric on the back in order to make the quilt hang straighter on the top and the rod to be at the back, and although I still struggle with getting a really good binding on a quilt, I am enormously better than I was in 2012 with that. I ewill take the binding off and redo it now if need be.
I bought a laser square and am really particular about the squareness of a quilt now from start to finish. My quilts that go to shows now are seldom, if at all, out of square.
Sew happy everyone! Stay calm and carry on…carry on with quilting, sewing, family, friends, home, and pray a lot. Make something for yourself or your favorite person. This plan will likely give you a lot of peace.
