How To Keep Your Quilt Top Edges Straight By Squaring Up Your Quilting Machine's Leaders

Learn how to keep your machine quilted quilt tops straight using this simple tip

that takes seconds to do and so easy you will want to do it everyime before you load a quilt top.

Have you ever worried that the quilt top that you are about to machine quilt on a shortarm, midarm or longarm quilting machine may not finish squarely? Not as a result of imperfect piecing, but as a result of the top and bottom leaders on your quilting machine table stretching or bowing out in the middle over time. This will always create a curve in the finished quilt after it is machine quilted because the distortion is quilted right into the finished quilt top.

So lets find out. Do your top and bottom leaders bow out in the center? Are your leaders starting to stretch in the center where all the pressure is exerted since we pin from the center out and rarely pin the entire length of the leaders? Here is a wonderfully effortless quick fix you can easy do right now that is so simple a solution you will want to use it before loading your next quilt top on your quilting machine.

To get your leaders squared to your rollers once again, take this simple step. Make sure your leaders are completely wound around their respective rollers. Roll so the ends of the leaders are lying directly on the top of the roller. Do the edges ripple, or maybe the edges form waves along the roller and are not in a perfectly straight line from end to end?

Now go to one end of your machine. Look down the rollers from one end to the other. Make sure you are eye level with the rollers. The end of the leader should be in a perfectly straight line from one end of the roller to the other. If it is bowed or uneven here is a quick to ensure that they are squared up and straight.

Canvas or cotton duck leaders are not supposed to shrink, though the fibers will migrate, hence the bowing in the center. It is a quick fix, to help them back to their original square up position with straight edges. First lock your rollers with the dogs or clamps. Let out about three feet of canvas and grab the outer two feet of canvas at each end of the rollers with both hands and tug at a 45 degree angle away from the center of your machine. Do one side first then the other. Keep tugging until the bow disappears.

Finally roll up your leaders again with the end of the leader lying on top of the roller. Coax the outer ends of the canvas by working them with your hands to take up any slack. Your canvas edges should have straightened out. Do this after every quilt and your leaders will stay straight and your quilts will always be squared up. More helpful information can be found in the book Pathways From Quilt Top To Quilted by Sally Terry and published by AQS.

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