Ugh, why are my quilt blocks always uneven, and what do you do when you finish quilting and realized you have puckers in the in the top or backing?

When you are beginning to learn any skill in life, you often find yourself in situations where you made a mistake, need a quick fix to keep moving forward with your project. Quilting is often no different so today we are talking about how to fix some common quilting mistakes, and some of the things you might not realize you’re doing to cause them in the first place.

Uneven Quilt Blocks, or Rows that won’t line up

The Cause: Seam allowance issues or inaccurate cutting

While inaccurate cutting is certainly a possible cause of uneven quilt blocks or rows not lining up, more often than not, your seam allowance will be what is causing the issue. 

I know it seems like a rule that’s screaming to be broken, especially as a beginner, but keeping a 1/4” seam allowance as close as possible will go miles to getting your quilt blocks and rows to line up much easier. 

By adding or subtracting only 1/8” to your seam allowance over the course of a block or a row, it quickly adds up and will alter your block dimensions significantly. 

Unfortunately, many times it won’t even be noticeable just looking at them side by side until you try to assemble them together and you find extra bulk. 

How to Fix it: Option 1 – Seam rip and remake the blocks, Option 2 – work in the bulk

Seam ripping is a time consuming option for sure, but an option none-the-less. 

Your other option is to leave everything as-is and spend extra time working in the bulk. Since I tend to avoid the seam ripper at all costs, this is my go to option. My usually preference is, if I can make it work as is, I will, and then just avoid causing the same situation again in the future.

The part of the quilt where people will notice blocks and rows uneven is the intersections where the blocks meet. 

So to work in the bulk, start at the row intersections. Nest your seams, pin it, and then use a large basting stitch to make sure your row and block intersections line up nicely. 

If you want to see a step by step tutorial for this process, check out our tutorial on getting intersections here. 

From there, pin the middle of the blocks together and work your way down the row distributing the excess bulk fabric between the pins. This will help you avoid pleats as much as possible. 

When you go to the sewing machine, remember to sew with the “baggy side” down.

The feed dogs will naturally feed more of the bottom fabric than the top fabric, so if you have excess bulk you are trying to work in, sewing with the wider side down will actually make the sewing machine do a lot of the work for you. 

If you are stuck with some bulk on the top layer feeding through the machine, using a purple thang, chop stick, or other utensil, feed the fabric in slowly and push bulk through as it goes. 

You’ll be able to slowly work the bulk in and combine your rows without seam ripping your blocks and starting over.  Depending on how much bulk you had, you likely won’t even notice this quilting mistake when it’s all quilted up.

How to Avoid it in the Future: Use tools to automate seam allowance

Whether it’s a 1/4″ presser foot, or a seam allowance guide, there are many tools that exist out there to automate your seam allowance to the point where you can set it and forget it.

Originally I thought my only option was to keep a very close eye on the 1/4″ mark on my sewing machine, and that required WAY too much attention on my part.

Once I started using tools to help, maintaining 1/4″ seam allowance became a million times simpler.

If you want a few ideas on how to use these types of tools and fix this quilting mistake for good, check out our post on 5 ways to check and keep a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Fixing a Puckered Quilt

The Cause: Not enough basting

Basting is the process of securing your quilt layers together before quilting so they don’t shift under the presser foot. 

When you go to quilt a quilt with large areas of unbasted layers, it is common to see layers slip past each other in the unbasted areas and create pleats, puckers, and weird waves. This is especially true towards the outside edges of those air pockets where the layers become fully basted again.

How to Fix it: Leave in place, hide it with more quilting, or seam rip the area and work in bulk

A puckered quilt is fortunately one of the mistakes that can be difficult to spot in a finished quilt. Most people outside the quilting world, will never even notice it, especially if it happens to be located on a busier fabric. 

However if you are determined to make it right, you have two options:

• Hide it by quilting more densely in that area to basically smash all the fabric down around the pucker so you can’t see it. 
• Rip it out and using a purple thang, chopstick, or some other utensil, gently push the fabric from the top as you restitch the area to work the bulk in. This will force the area through the machine at the same rate instead of pushing forward making the pleat. 

How to Avoid it in the Future: Baste more densely

The best way to avoid a puckered quilt on your next project is to baste more densely, in whatever basting method you typically use. 

Spray basting is one of my favorite ways to baste a quilt, I find that the spray provides great coverage and you are less likely to see this puckering compared to safety pins or board basting.

Even that isn’t fool proof though.

Even with spray basting, it’s not uncommon to have certain localized spots on the quilts where the spray didn’t adhere all the way creating an air bubbles between the layers. 

My go to way to reliably combat the issue is to spray baste and then iron both sides of the quilt sandwich once you have it all basted! 

The iron heats up the adhesive between the layers making it sticky again and then the pressure from the iron ensures that the spray makes full contact with both the batting and the fabric. 

Once it cools you are almost guaranteed to have zero air pockets within your quilt sandwich.

Spray basting is not every quilter’s go to method, so if you prefer a different method where there is no adhesive for an iron to help, be sure to simply baste more densely in the future to keep the layers from shifting. Whether you add more safety pins, or more basting stitches to secure the layers. 

7 Other Quilting Mistakes I Made As A Beginner and How to Avoid Them 

Before move on, let’s talk for a second about why we tend to make more mistakes in the beginning.

The simple answer is “because there is just so much stuff to learn!” Trying to remember to do so many things at the same time in the same project is just not always feasible. Especially when just getting the sewing machine to not break the thread every other stitch feels impossible. 

As you learn more about how to fix quilting mistakes as they come up, it’s common to feel overwhelmed by all the things you HAVE to do, according to the professionals, in order to “successfully” make a quilt. 

But just remember, it’s not likely you are entering your first quilt into a competition. Making quilting mistakes, or even leaving them in, is not going to make the finished product any less than a quilt, or make you any less of a quilter. 

Just get started with a quilt project and figure out how to fix the mistakes as you go!

Does your thread keep breaking in your sewing machine? It might be your thread weight.

There is a LOT to learn when you first start quilting, and very rarely does thread weight make it on the short list of things to learn. 

I learned this one the hard way, so hopefully you won’t have to. 

Let’s start here: What even is thread weight?

Thread weight refers to the thickness or gauge of the thread you are using. The lower the number, the thicker the thread strand is. The number refers to how many kilometers of that thread you’d need to equal 1 kilogram of weight. 

The thicker the thread strand is, the heavier it will be. You’d need less thread to reach that 1 kilogram compared to something thinner. 

When you are first starting out, you don’t necessarily give this factor much thought when you are buying thread, if you are anything like me, you just grab the color you need and you’re on your way.

But the sewing machine handles different thread weights differently and might be the cause of any fights with your sewing machine. 

Too high of thread weight is so thin it will often stretch from the tension when threaded in a sewing machine, and you’ll find it breaking often while you are trying to stitch. 

Too low of thread weight (a very thick thread) will actually get used up significantly quicker and you’ll feel like you are using half of the spool just to wind a bobbin. It will also be much more difficult to thread the needle, sometimes even impossible. 

40 wt thread is often considered the standard weight to use for quilting so you can either look for that weight specifically, or just keep an eye out for the labels in the thread aisle. Most stores will also keep different gauges apart and categorized by tasks they are typically used for (general use, hand sewing, machine quilting, embroidery, etc).

If your thread is constantly breaking in your sewing machine, or you’re going through spools of thread like it’s water, keep an eye out for what weight it is, it might not be the machine, it might be the thread you are using.

Not prewashing all of your fabric before sewing with it

Between cotton shrinking, and dyes bleeding, in my opinion this is just an overall good practice. I know this one is controversial across quilters, however this is my personal stance on it:

I rarely keep the quilts I make, I just don’t need that many and, for me, it’s about the process, not the end product. Not to mention I’m just a gift giver and I enjoy the look on someone’s face when they open it up 🙂

Friends and family do not generally think about quilts the same way I do when it comes to caring for them. They are likely going to throw it in the wash with other clothes on high heat, or they aren’t going to think about fabric colors bleeding and go out of their way to buy color catchers ahead of time. 

So why don’t I account for that and save them the trouble or stress of potentially damaging it?

If I wash the fabrics on high heat before ever cutting into them, they’ll be preshrunk. If I catch any potential free fabric dye ahead of time because I own color catchers, it will be much less likely that they will bleed colors later when the future owner goes to wash it. 

The only caveat to this is, I avoid pre-washing precuts. Precuts are already small enough, and then edges will unravel in the wash and warp the precut shape. When I use precuts, I don’t wash ANY fabrics ahead of time (including background and backing yardage) and will instead take care when washing it after it’s fully assembled. 

By avoiding washing anything when using precuts, everything will shrink at the same rate later and you’ll never notice. Just make sure you are the one who washes it first!

Don’t start machine quilting without a plan

What stitches in 5 minutes takes 5 hours to rip, so the best way to avoid quilter’s remorse is to go in with a plan you already know you’ll love. 

You don’t need to go into as much depth as how you are going to physically get the machine from this section to that section. But having an idea of what designs you want in the block before getting there will prevent you from feeling like you’ve “ruined” the quilt and wanting to rip the stitches. 

I will often take a picture of the quilt top, or quilt block, and print it out. Then in pencil, I’ll try out different designs in a section of the quilt to see what I like the best before committing on fabric.

Sitting down and ripping out stitches (especially a lot of them) is an incredibly frustrating experience. Making a plan ahead of time is the best way to avoid this quilting mistake in the future.

Machine quilting like you’re driving

When you machine quilt, do you grip the quilt with both hands like you grip a steering wheel in your car? 

Gripping your quilt and forcing it through the machine as opposed to gently gliding it through the machine can cause two issues:

• Inconsistent stitch lengths and wavy lines 
• Physical pain in your hands

Often times this happens because you are working with the bulk weight of the quilt and are trying to work against gravity. The quilt may be sitting in your lap, draped to the ground, hanging off the edge of the table, or just simply caught around the corners of your machine. 

All of these things cause resistance to your pushing which encourages you to grip it like a steering wheel. But when you grip it, you are much more likely to end up with wavy lines that don’t end up where you intended, or stitches of all crazy stitch lengths, and worst of all, pain in your hands. 

Ball your quilt up all around your machine when you quilt and give yourself as much slack as possible. Take gravity out of the equation so you can keep your hands flat, and focus more on the quilting and less on the quilt.

Working with too much fabric at one time

Fabric is NOT cheap. So why would I want to short myself by hacking it up into smaller pieces before actually cutting my quilt pieces out? By keeping it whole, I could get more pieces in and buy less yardage overall. Right?

This was the exact mindset I had on my first few many quilts. 

And after a few bouts of wrestling with the fabric, strips coming out bowed, and just generally not staying in place when I went to cut it, I began to see the light. 

In more than one place in quilting, gravity is your worst enemy. Fabric bulk = more places for gravity to get involved.

It will push, pull, and warp your quilting pieces as you work with the yards and yards of fabric, and you’ll, more often than not, end up with quilt blocks that don’t line up right because your quilt pieces are not all the same.

If you’re going to spend weeks or months working on a project, why cut the corner at the beginning? You won’t recognize there’s an issue until the very end when you are assembling it all together and you’ll be annoyed that you spent all that time working on it, just to have things not line up nicely. 

Buying the extra 1/4 or 1/2 yard will save you frustration in the long run.

Not Continuously Learning

When you graduate high school or college, you never actually know everything there is to know about the world or the industry you are going into. 

In order to continue growing in your quilting skills and knowledge, you have to keep learning too! 

Many quilters learn some basic skills, and then never feel like they are experienced enough to try something outside their comfort zone. This often leads to a long list of quilts to make, but hesitation to ever get started. 

Without the knowledge, tools, and tips to learn how to fix your quilting mistakes, hesititation to start can set it.

Continuously learning about things like how to make that bargello quilt, or that double wedding ring quilt, will give you the confidence to tackle them. But if you just sit and look at the pattern and think “I could never handle that” then you’ll never find out about some really fun techniques that simplify that pattern significantly. 

My hands-down favorite place to go when I need some help with a specific quilt pattern, or free motion quilting technique, is Craftsy. 

If you’ve never heard of Craftsy before, it’s basically the Netflix of crafting and its first category front and center on the home page is Quilting. With pages and pages of classes on quilting, many of them about tips to making a single type of quilt pattern, you’ll be able to learn the fast and easy way to make that quilt. No frustration, stress (or fabric) wasted. 

The first class I ever took was Startup Library: Quilting and it was AMAZING for learning how to fix quilting mistakes as well as best practices for the future.

If Craftsy, or quilting classes in general, has ever been something you’ve thought about looking into in the past, the price has been significantly reduced (by 97%!) so now’s definitely the time to check it out. 

With such a large variety of quilting classes, you’ll have everything you need to fix these common quilting mistakes for good and finally tackle those quilts on your to-do list. Check out a Craftsy subscription today and get your quilting on!