Longarm Quilting
Professional Quilter
Long Arm Quilter
Statler
Farmington, New Mexico
Durango, Colorado
Professional Quilter
Long Arm Quilter
Statler
Farmington, New Mexico
Durango, Colorado
| BACK PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS The backing fabric is a huge 'patch'. It adds needed strength, stability, and straightness to the top and batting. If it is not 'square' it will load onto my machine unevenly. Some areas will sag, while other sections are taut, resulting in pleats in the backing or a quilt that will not lay flat. A good, square backing is best. If you have to piece the backing try to make sure that the lengthwise grain is going the same direction in all sections. Some quilters like pieced backings. These can be attractive and cost effective, but the stability that you get with an uncut piece of fabric is gone, increasing the possibility of tucks or folds stitched into the back, or a quilt that does not lie flat. If you have not yet purchased your back fabric, I have 118-inch wide white and cream cotton sateen available. Determine the size the back should be … measure the top and add 8” to the length & width (ex.: the top finishes 40 x 60 : The back would be 48 x 68.) Please don't skimp on this. My longarm isn't like a regular sewing machine, where you can sew right up to the edge of the fabric. The backing is pinned and clamped in place, so the edges cannot be sewn. Remove the selvages before stitching the seams--they are woven much tighter than the main fabric. This section will not quilt evenly and will probably not shrink evenly. You can leave them on the outside edges. Backing seams should be one-half inch, and pressed open. The whole back should be pressed. |
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Happy Stitches, LLC
505-327-3190
505-327-3190
| APPLYING BORDERS Have you ever had a quilt top that had a waves on the edges, or even ruffles? If you attach borders that are the PLANNED size to a quilt that is NOT the planned size, you get waves. This happens when the borders are too long for the center of the quilt. The piecing usually shrinks up the quilt from the planned size a little bit (and sometimes a lot). And sometimes it even ends up larger than planned. The following method of adding borders will prevent this problem. After the body of the quilt has been pieced, gently press before adding borders. The logical place to measure the finished top is along its outside edges, but this is not a useful measurement for adding border. Instead, measurements should be taken across the center in two or three places for both the width and length. If these measurements are different from that of the outer edge, accidental shrinking or stretching has occurred. To keep the finished quilt as straight and square as possible, you must measure the centers. To make a border with straight-cut corners: 1. Determine the length of the quilt border by averaging two or three center measurements (see Fig. 1.) Cut two borders that length and pin them to opposite sides of the quilt matching ends, centers, and quarters easing in the fullness. Sew and press. 2. Determine the width of the quilt border by averaging the distance of two or three center measurements, including the borders added in step 1. (see Fig 2.) Cut these borders that length and pin easing in the fullness. Sew and press. 3. If the outer border has lots of seams, please stay stitch the edges. If you need help with any of this or just want to talk about it, call me at 505-327-3190. |
