One longarmer's advice - The Next Step

Your Quilt top is completed, what’s next?

Iron your entire quilt top. You need to make sure those seams lay flat. Since you’ve probably been ironing as you constructed the quilt top this shouldn’t be a very difficult task. Iron from the back first to make sure all your seams are laying in the direction you intend. Then look at the front and iron out any puckers or pleats that may have shown up while ironing from the back.

Get your backing ready. Make sure your backing is 8” longer and 8” wider than your quilt top. For instance, if your quilt top is 54" x 60" then your backing needs to be at least 62" x 68". This ensures that the quilt top can be properly secured to the longarm frame and the longarm quilting head has enough room to maneuver.

What if your quilt top is 44” wide? You don’t want to buy another length of fabric to get those extra 8”on the backing fabric. One option is to use left over fabric from the quilt top that you can piece together and insert into the backing piece to make up those extra 8”. I prefer the additional strip to be placed in the center running top to bottom. This makes the backing easier to center on the longarm. Another option is to put a scrap strip, like muslin, on the top, bottom and sides of the backing fabric. These strips will be removed after the quilting is completed. There is always the possibility some of this fabric may get attached to the quilt top and need to stay in place, inside the binding hopefully, when the quilting is done. This is why I prefer to place the center piece.

 If you’re supplying your own batting it needs to be the same size as the backing piece. My preferred batting is 80% cotton/20% polyester.

You’re almost ready to bring everything to the longarmer!