What's a Wavy Border (and why should I care)?

If you lay your quilt flat on the floor and the center of the quilt is nice and flat but the borders seem to have a wave to them, whether big or small, this is going to pose problems when you have it longarmed. A very small wave can often be steamed (shrunk) but what often happens is that a tuck or pleat will appear in your border (which you don't want).

Q: I was just told I have wavy borders on my quilt. I've never had any other longarmmer tell me this and to be honest, I'm a bit offended. I think my piecing is great. What does this mean?

A: Please don't be offended as this happens to the best of us (even me!). In fact, some quilters can make dozens of quilts with no issues and then, voila! a problem child as it were.

Please keep reading to see how to fix this (as well as more detail on why this is a problem for longarmming your quilt).

How does this happen?

This most likely occurred because when sewing on your borders, you took a border strip of fabric that was longer than your quilt edge and started at one end and sewed it on. This is the way most patterns instruct you to do because it is easy (for example, your side is 40" and you take a 45" border strip, sew it on and then cut off the 5-ish inches left over). Like on the right >

Sure, this is the easiest and quickest way to do the border, but the reason this is not good is pure physics.

Since we all know that quilting is not as precise as we'd like it to be and usually measurements vary along the length and width of the quilt, you are essentially allowing that tiny strip of fabric to continue (and magnify) any variances in measurements. For example, measure your quilt in three places -- is the measurement exactly the same? Probably not -- you might have 84.25" in one place, 84.5" in another, and maybe even a whopping 85" in another. Even the most exacting quilter can find this. I have received quilts that were 4 inches longer on the right side than the left and one time one that was 8" longer (and no, these are not able to be "quilted out").

What are some other causes of wavy borders? While the above is the most common cause of wavy borders, some others include the list to the right.

You can imagine the problems that occur when there are several of these factors. However, given that one of these issues could initially cause the wavy border, using the techniques below for the border itself will mitigate those issues and ensure your quilt will lay nice and flat and more importantly, not have any problems with being longarmmed.

* a lot of bias piecing which produces a lot of stretch
* blocks set on point (lots of stretch and hard to square along horizontal or vertical lines)
* inconsistent 1/4" seams
* not squaring your blocks as you are building the top
* combining stretchy and rigid fabrics (e.g., regular quilting cotton with batiks)
* ironing your borders the length of the border instead of using a side-to-side motion
* many borders
* very wide borders

Solution:

Can't I just fix this while it's sewn on the quilt?

If you've done your border as above, and if it is obviously wavy - sorry, but most likely you'll need to remove your borders (yes, you really should remove ALL borders) and follow the steps below for Prevention.

Prevention or re-doing:

1. Measure your quilt in the center one of the directions (width or length). (Why the center? -- its most likely to be the squarest measurement and this will ensure you aren't adding in errors or variances from piecing).

Mark the center of that side with a pin - it's okay if the side measurement isn't the same as what you are measuring in the center. You just want to find the true center of that side - I typically just fold the top in half and pin.

2. Using the measurement, cut the border strip to exactly that number. For example, say you chose to start with your length and the center is 56.75". Cut two border strips (or piece together if it is longer than your fabric) to be EXACTLY that measurement to use for your long borders. You will be ignoring the actual side measurements.

3. Fold your first border in half and mark that center with a pin. Match your center pin on the border strip with the center pin on your quilt. Now pin both ends of the border to match exactly with the edges.

(Yes... PIN!, no cheating here and trying to just go back to sewing the strip).

4. Continue pinning as needed along the length of the border strip, easing in any waves/fullness. Expect there to be some -- especially if you are fixing a wavy border, there was fullness to start with that you need to ease in. If your quilt top is larger than the border piece, you will be easing in fullness on the top. If your border strip is larger, then you will be easing in on the border strip.

5. Sew with the quilt on top, border on the bottom.

(Why? Because this allows the feed dogs to help you ease in that fullness). Be careful not to catch in and pleat any of the fullness as you go along.

6. Press.

HINT: As we mention in our preparation page, iron side to side (from inner part of the quilt to outer edge), not lengthwise along the border). This will help avoid stretching the fabric and adding waviness back in.

7. Repeat the sewing/pressing process for the other long border.

8. Repeat for other sides. Now go back and measure your other direction (width in the case of our example). Measure the EXACT width including the border piece you just did. Go back to step three and complete your last two borders.