Quick tip for dealing with too much quilt top fabric:

Riddle me this:

When does a quilter have too much fabric?

(**see answer below)

Dream Pillow Trapunto

QUICK TIP:

Use your fingertips to walk the fabric smooth when basting a wavy top for quilting.

Each time I load a quilt onto my Handiquilter Avante frame, I take specific steps to assure the quilt is square. With every advance of the quilt, I continue to watch carefully to make sure that the quilt ends up as square as possible.

The one thing I’ve learned from my own quilts and observed in customers’ quilts, that I can measure, cut, and sew as carefully as possible and still, sometimes, there will be an abundance of quilt top fabric for the space it is to occupy (to keep it a squared quilt) . It can be a challenge to baste wavy edges. Over time and many quilts, I developed a trick to make easy work of easing in that extra fabric when basting the edges:

*Start closest to you and stitch away from you (towards the top of the quilt).

*While one hand is moving the machine up the edge of your quilt top, use your pointer and index fingers of the other hand to gently “walk” behind the foot, following it up the side of the       quilt top. As your fingers “walk”, use your fingertips or nails to gently tug the fabric back towards you.

*If the amount of extra fabric is excessive, I like to spritz the quilt top with Best Press, help it dry thoroughly with a warm hair dryer, and then stitch it while walking the fabric. The Best           Press gives the fabric a slight stiffness and seems to shrink it slightly, making the easing process easier.

Oklahoma! by Karla Kiefner Oklahoma Backroads Pattern by Bonnie Hunter

**ANSWER TO THE RIDDLE:  When there is more fabric than space when quilting the top–and that’s the ONLY time a quilter has too much fabric!

How do you handle “sticky situations” when quilting?

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