When I made A Hot Mess - Colorful I knew it was all out of whack.

Here’s the top as I finished it -

I knew as I was working with it that it was off kilter a bit. A bit wonky. With a quilt like this, just being wonky wasn’t enough to be concerned about, but I could tell that it was wider along one end than the other. Significantly wider.

I’m not sure how that happened, either. But that’s not really the point of this post.

This is about how I went from a wonky top to a squared off quilt.

I’m going to do it with lots of pictures!

First, find materials -

You need a yard stick or meter stick, long straight edges (2 is best) and some washable magic markers. You also need your quilt to be quilted and stitched around the edge (to keep it as flat as possible).

2. Put your quilted quilt on a flat place. I used my very long table.

Straighten First side:

Eyeball and draw a straight line along one side of the quilted top. I used my washable marker. Use the straight edge.and mark along one edge.

Cut on that line.

First edge is trimmed!

Straighten second edge/side:

Measure down along the side you just cut 4 feet or 48 inches. Measure along the top side - the side you are working on over 3 feet or 36 inches. Mark that spot with a pin or marker - this is a temporary mark..

Using your tape measure, measure diagonally across 5 feet (60”) from the 48” mark and over 36” along the top. If it doesn’t match the pin you put in along the top, adjust the mark on the quilt so it does.

You need a helper. Have a second person hold your tape measure on to the 48” mark along the first edge and measure 60” and see if you can match the 36” mark along the edge you just noted. If it won’t reach, move the tape measure so that the 60” mark on the tape measure meets up with 36” on the straight edge. When it does, mark the quilt right there.

Mark that spot.

I then moved the whole quilt to the floor where I could use the long straight edge and using the marked section so far, I followed the rest of the line and marked my cutting line.

Using a big square quilting ruler and a yardstick or meter stick, mark along the this second side making sure that the corner is 90 degrees and matching up with the mark. Draw along that yard/meter stick coming to a 90 degree angle with the side you have already cut. If you have followed these directions, the corner you created should be 90 degrees.