susanwilley

Thanks so much everyone for all the suggestions! I knew you all would be able to help me! Ithink I’m going to try to fix the two seams that will reach the connecting seamby hand sewing them closed and try an appliqué for the other.

Barb in Louisiana

I looked up the block and after you have fixed these shredded seams, however you do it, I would add a quilting stitch line around each seam on the blocks with a 1/8" seam on each side of the original seams. This should catch your original 1/4" seam and will stabilize the fabric to the batting. If you know someone with a long arm quilting machine, they can do this fairly quickly. If not, just take your time on your home sewing machine. I don't believe that doing a stitch in the ditch will help you with the problem you are having with the shredding. It might just make it worse.

I had a fabric I was using in a quilt start raveling like crazy. It matched the other fabrics so well, that I was determined to use it. For every seam with that fabric, I sewed the 1/4" seam and then went back and sewed a wavy 1/8" average seam closer to the edge before ironing the block or sewing any other parts to it. My wavy seam stabilized the fabric. The quilt has been washed many times and is fine.

liking quilting

I don't know the answer to this problem, but just had to comment that this is one of the greatest frustrations I've run into in quilting. My problem in my some of my earlier quilting was not watching my piecing closely enough and having the edges not stay lined up for the whole seam. Getting one piece of fabric off track a little bit can make for much too weak of a finished seam to hold up. Of course, it doesn't pop apart until after the quilt has been finished! Ugh.

feline fanatic

Barb and Kalamaquilts are spot on regarding the amount of quilting. You will most definitely have to do more quilting on this if you want it to hold up. Once you repair the seams that did come apart, I highly recommend putting it under the needle and double the amount of quilting you have on it, if not more. Quilting no less than 4" apart in all directions or at least on both sides of every single seam.

susanwilley

That's a good idea! Do you think stitch in the ditch would help? Or should it be away from the seam?

feline fanatic

I would not SITD but instead quilt on either side of the seam. You may be able to get away with doing just one side like 1/8" away from the seam like a previous poster suggested. But if this were my quilt, I would quilt on both sides of the seam. My usual distance is 1/4" away from the seam line but given your fraying issues, I think I would come in closer to try and catch the seam allowance fabric for extra strength. I will often do the 1/4" echo stitch in addition to ditching but in your case I would not ditch. The additional quilting will help to stabilize the entire quilt and put much less stress on your pieced seams.

susanwilley

This is great! I can do a wavy seam closer throughout the quilt. It may even look like I planned it that way. LOL Thanks so much for your help!

cindyb

Every single suggestion is right on. I did not see, however, a trick I once used for this problem. After I re-did a section, then appliqued it onto that frayed section, I then used a zigzag stitch around the whole attached section with invisible thread. I was amazed at how well this worked for an otherwise disaster.

KalamaQuilts

a serpentine stitch over all the seams would be pretty, as long as it wasn't too wide.

MadQuilter

Depending on how long the opening is, you may be able to insert a strip of fusible interfacing to help hold down the seam. Then quilt over it.

I also do not stick to the minimal quilting distance. For some reason I always feel lazy when I think about "just" doing the minimum.

Sorry this happened to you.