how to do a dense serpentine border design

[Claire Hallman]

I decided to get into quilting because of some pillow shams that were quilted with a dense serpentine design.
Now four years later I decide to try replicating that on a quilt border.........bad idea.

I marked a scalloped line on the border and started stitching using a walking foot machine. I echoed the stitch about ever half inch and alternated my sewing direction. It looked pretty good until I realized the quilt that had been flat had turned into a mushroom..

I ended up cutting my 4 inch border to 2 inches and that flattened it enough to bind it. It was then not a total loss.

I would like to know how to actually do a border this way, does anyone know how?

[Alpha O]

Use a stabilizer. There are many for embroidery. I used a stabilizer doing a serpentine stitch from a quilting template on the sleeve of a quilted shirt. I had to stabilize as I used the triple bean or straight stitch to sew. I have a Pfaff with IDT.

I just did a traditional serpentine for the cuff on a pillowcase. I used an 8 1/2" wide strip of fabric, folded in half. Spraybasted flannel to the back and quilted top and flannel. Then stitched the header to the case, turned up the other half of the header and used a stitch in the ditch to hold back and front together.

If I had wanted to embroider or used a heavier stitch, there are many lightweight embroider stabilizers you can use instead of flannel.

I've done machine embroidered headers on sheets and pillowcases using a permanent stabilizer and turning up the other half of the header unstitched. There's a soft iron-on for knits that would not be noticeable.

[Sylvia H]

The only time I did any dense quilting, I used 100 wt silk thread. Perhaps a thinner thread would help for your heavy quilting as well. But I do think the stabilizer will be the most helpful.

[Claire Hallman]

I was doing this on a quilt sandwich [using 80/20 batting] that had the center already fairly densely quilted with swirls. Do you think a stabilizer would make it not draw up? I will experiment some time soon and see if that helps.

The lighter weight thread might have helped, I was using Masterpiece as the top thread and Bottomline in the bobbin.

This is for next time, one day I would like to replicate those shams.

[Sylvia H]

I would experiment with stabilizers. Perhaps one that is water soluble, so when you wash the quilt, it dissolves.

[Vonnie]

What stitch length did you use?

What about free motion serpentine stitching?

I'm just tossing out ideas. Would love to know the results of your experimenting. Might save me some heartache in the future.

[Claire Hallman]

What stitch length did you use?

What about free motion serpentine stitching?

I'm just tossing out ideas. Would love to know the results of your experimenting. Might save me some heartache in the future.

I was using my needle feed/walking foot machine. It does not have feed dogs, it has a true walking foot and only has one stitch length, a fairly long stitch. It was originally made for upholstery but works so very well for quilting as there is no tucks or take up.....usually. That is why I was so surprised at the problem. I think the problem is the density of the quilting making the sandwich draw up. I thought the center was quilted densely enough to balance the dense quilting on the border but it was not. I don't know when I might get the nerve up to do this again but I might try to do it as a quilt as you go so that shrinkage might not be a problem.
Thanks for all the comments, everyone.