cathyvv

Poor quality fabric - I bought a kind of night black fabric for my DGD quilt. I paid full price (over $10) in a LQS. It unraveled so badly that by the time I sewed in a 1/4" seam, the 1/4" was unraveled.

The only way that I could fix that was to lightly water down some elmers washable glue and coat the edges of the fabric strips I had cut. That kept it from unraveling, so I went ahead and starched what was left of it. Using the starched and glued fabric set my allergies off...starch and glue dust!

I have never been more disappointed in a fabric as I am of that black fabric. It is perfect for the quilt in terms of color and print, but the worst fabric I have ever had the misfortune to use.

cathyvv

Poor quality fabric - I bought a kind of night black fabric for my DGD quilt. I paid full price (over $10) in a LQS. It unraveled so badly that by the time I sewed in a 1/4" seam, the 1/4" was unraveled.

The only way that I could fix that was to lightly water down some elmers washable glue and coat the edges of the fabric strips I had cut. That kept it from unraveling, so I went ahead and starched what was left of it. Using the starched and glued fabric set my allergies off...starch and glue dust!

I have never been more disappointed in a fabric as I am of that black fabric. It is perfect for the quilt in terms of color and print, but the worst fabric I have ever had the misfortune to use.

Panels - I love to use them. Yes, they are wonky. But they can be ironed into submission in most cases. When the quilt is done, I use a medium to small end to end quilt design on the quilt to secure its shape.

lclang

I read somewhere that the fabric is probably woven okay but it is the wrapping on the bolt that causes the wonkiness in panels because the top layer of the fabric takes just a few more threads than the bottom layer to get around the bolt and it gets worse as it continues to wrap around the bolt. If you can get the first one or two on the bolt they are supposed to be better. (Or so the story goes!)

quiltmom04

I've found that no matter who prints the panels, they are all wonky to some extent. If you can add a border or two, even a small one, to even out the wonkiness, it will help.

GingerK

I usually wet the panel and then tape it down 'square' and let it dry. So far, I have been able to get them pretty close to what they should be. Then I add the borders.

Diana Lea

I wash my panels then iron them with starch. I feel I have more control.

Pennyhal

Gosh, I never knew that this problem was so prevalent. I ended up putting two borders on the blocks after I cut off the border that was printed on the fabric and they look ok. I don't mind having to square things up if I know it when I buy these kind of things. This one was so way off though, that I considered throwing it out. I like the idea of putting a stabilizer on the back. Think I'll do that the next time I run into extra thin fabric.

MFord

For Scraplady - I wasn't sure what Aunt Jane meant by "caliker" so I looked it up and found more:

"I reckon you think, child, that a caliker or a worsted quilt is a curious sort of a monument'bout as perishable as the sweepin' and scrubbin' and mendin'. But if folks values things rightly, and knows how to take care of 'em, there ain't many things that'll last longer'n a quilt."

MacThayer

I have used a permanent fabric stabilizer on specific pieces of fabric with good results. It makes thin fabric not show through, and holds panels that are wonky, once you straighten them out. e.g. I straighten the weave on the block, and then I apply the stabilizer. It works well and doesn't "come loose" after the quilt has been used a while.

caroloto

I too have a solid orange bought at the LQS was doing the same thing, plus it was stretching with a dry iron by just pressing, very upset with it!!! But how I ended up handling working with it was to over cut the the size and using more like 3/8th to just under a 1/2" seam leaving the other color block the right size cut out. This seeams to have worked.