What if the top isn’t square? Did you know most quilt tops are not square and that's okay.
Here are some tips if you have received a quilt top from a customer and it's not square.
Never “square” a customer’s quilt top with your rotary cutter or scissors. Lay out the quilt and notice if the borders are ruffled. You must discuss ruffled borders with your customer, preferably before they leave the top with you. If the quilt top has extra fullness in the borders or elsewhere within the top, here are some ideas to suggest to your customer :
(Politely show them and say, “As you can see, there is extra fullness in the border. This is sometimes created by simply adding the border strip to the quilt top without first measuring the top and cutting the border to that measurement.”)
1- Explain how to correct the problem to the customer and allow them to take it home to fix by taking off the borders, re measure and put them back on.
2- Tell the customer you will do your best to prevent tucks, but can not guarantee results.
It's important not to make the customer feel bad about how they pieced their quilt top or if you are your own customer, don't feel like you have pieced your top wrong.
NOTE- Unless those borders are really unruly, most of the time you can work in the extra fabric as you quilt. This does take some extra time and patience in the quilting process. Corey has done a great video on how to quilt an Unruly Top, check it out below!
