Why does my piece pucker??

I was recently asked how to keep a thread piece from puckering so badly when you work it, so I thought I would share the answer here.
There are a few things you can do:
1. Use a hoop. This will keep your work tight and reduce the chance of puckering. Its not the best way, but it works to some extent.
2. My way. I always use 2 things—stabilizer and fusible web.  Here’s how..

I use Pellon Wonder Under in most of my projects. I buy it by the roll and I have 5 rolls ready to go for this year. And I will use it all up. Really! Above you can see I chose an image in a piece of cotton and printed it out. I don’t know if you can see, but the fabric is cut ON THE BIAS. This also helps keep the puckering and waves to a minimum.

Then I peel the back of the Wonder Under off, and iron on a piece of stabilizer, like the one below. Iron the stabilizer to the Wonder Under, not the front of your piece. (seriously, people have done this in my class).
I don’t know if this helps, but this is not a really thin, nor a heavy duty stabilizer—its medium? I buy it on a roll and I'm sorry, I don’t know who makes it. It tears easily and adds just the right amount of stability. Iron this on and then trim it all so no stabilizer or fusible web is dangling over the piece of fabric.

And THAT is how you make a piece that will hardly pucker or buckle or warp or flock or anything when you do intensive machine stitching on it.