South Coast quilting - preraring your work

How can you make sure your quilt looks great once it’s been quilted. 

Longarm quilting secures the multiple layers of a quilt together with a strong, decorative design. This step is technically what makes a quilt top into a quilt. 

There are not many things more exciting than seeing the quilt top you worked so hard to piece come back as a finished quilt emblazoned with the stunning quilting design you have chosen. However, some factors can affect the quality of the final product. Let’s look at a few things you can do to make sure your quilt looks truly amazing after long-arming.

Here at South Coast Quilting, our charter is to always go above and beyond to exceed our customer's expectations. If you are thrilled with the finished result, then we are ecstatic. Nothing gives us more pleasure than for our customers to see their carefully crafted pieces of artwork being brought to completion with stunning quilting designs. By working closely together, we can easily achieve the best possible outcomes for your finished quilt. 

** Alternatively, you can avail yourself of our quilt top preparation service, the fee structure of which is detailed in our pricing guide located here.

Here’s how to get your quilt ready for longarm quilting, so you end up with the best results possible.

Securing the Quilt Top

Once the quilt top is made, look to see if there are seams leading into the outer edges. If so, baste through these seams about ⅛” from the edge to ensure they don’t open when loaded onto the longarm. If there are multiple seams, you may have to baste around the entire quilt edge. Remember that the binding will cover any basting stitches you make here so they won’t be seen. 

Press the Quilt Top and Clip all Loose Threads

Press the quilt top from the underneath side, ensuring all seams are flattened. Any loose threads can easily be seen through the quilt top once the batting has been secured. This is especially so if there are any light fabrics used in your quilt top.  Clip all loose threads. 

Square Up

Once you’ve taken care of those loose threads, make sure your quilt top is squared and even on all four sides. This is undoubtedly the most important step in the quilt preparation process, and if not achieved will accentuate the unevenness in your quilt top during the quilting process.

When we sew together the blocks of a quilt, sometimes we are all going to wind up with seams that weren’t perfect. Over time, these little imperfections in the seam allowances can add up, making the quilt top uneven along the edges. This can also be enhanced if we choose to add borders.  

Lay your quilt top on a large table or cutting surface. Be sure that it is well supported, and one side isn’t pulling it down off the table. Arrange it so that the bottom right corner of the quilt is on your cutting mat, with room around the edges.

Position your straight-edge cutting ruler on top of the corner of the quilt top, lining it up so that the outer edges of the ruler are in a position to give you a clean corner on the quilt top.

Place your square-cutting ruler directly on top of your straight-edge ruler, so that you can clearly find a clean corner that is neat and straight. Adjust both rulers as needed to find the perfect corner placement – you’ll use this as your cutting guide, so the edges of your ruler will become the new edges of your quilt top.

Make sure the fabric edges of your quilt top line up with or extend beyond the edges of your ruler – you don’t want them slipping under it or else your newly-cut lines won’t be even.

Use your rotary cutter to cut along the right edge of your rulers, as far as that ruler will allow you to go.

Move your quilt top so that the top right corner is in position on the cutting mat, and repeat steps 2-4 to cut a straight, clean corner in this position.

Position your quilt top accordingly so that you can continue to cut the straight line between the bottom right corner and the top right corner, using your straight-edge ruler and rotary cutter. Move the quilt top as you go, continuing that line from one corner to the other, until the whole right side of your quilt has a straight edge.

Repeat these steps with the bottom left and top left corners.

Smooth out any jagged edges caused by moving your ruler across the quilt.

When laid out on the floor, your quilt top should now lay completely flat. 

Incorrectly sized borders are the single most common cause of quilts ending up out of square or with gathers & tucks.

Incorrectly sized borders lead to a warped finished quilt. If a border is not the same length as the side it's being attached to, it WILL cause distortion and/or gathers in your quilt during the quilting process. The most common reason for this is that we as patch-workers tend to be driven by the directions given to us by the patterns we follow. This however doesn’t take into consideration the variations that can be experienced during the piecing process, such as using scant seams, cutting on the bias, and fabric movement.

 When attaching borders, it is always good to remember not to trust anything but your own measurements. 

The easiest way to achieve great borders that enhance the squaring of your quilt top is the tri-measure method. Lay your quilt top on a flat surface and measure the width of the quilt top in three separate places, top, middle, and bottom. You will almost see a variation in all three measurements.  

Add these three measurements together, then divide by three. This will give you the length of the border to attach to both the top and bottom of your quilt. Pin and attach the two borders to your quilt top. Now repeat the process again, measuring the length of your quilt in three places, incorporating the attached borders at the top and bottom measuring the left side, middle and right side of the quilt top. Again, add these three measurements together and divide by three, and this will give you the length of the border to cut. Attach these to the sides of the quilt. 

Your backing fabric is the key element of providing stability to your quilt throughout the quilting process. When loading this into the frame for quilting it is essential for this to be as square as possible. Take as much care when cutting your backing fabric as you do when you cut for piecing your quilt top. Remember also that your backing fabric needs to be 8” (20 cm) larger than your quilt top both in length and width. 

Should you desire to piece your backing fabric, which many of us do, try to ensure that the seam is an ½ inch seam and is pressed flat.

If possible, ensure that your seam runs horizontally to your quilt’s top edge. These measures will provide the strongest seam join. 

Cut your batting as square as possible, and this should be the same size as your backing fabric, 8” (20 cm) larger than your quilt top both in length and width. If you are supplying your own batting, please keep your quilt top, backing fabric and batting separate. This will prevent the batting from shedding its fibres over the beautiful work you’ve already undertaken.