MeanderingThreads.com
Instructions
Preparing Your Top for Quilting
There are a few simple things that need to be done to a quilt top to ensure that the quilting goes smoothly.
- Give your quilt top a final pressing. Make sure that all of your seam allowances are pressed one way and lay flat.
- Trim or remove any threads that are attached to the front of the quilt top, so that they don’t accidentally get quilted in place.
- If your quilt has a designated top, please mark it with a safety pin.
- Make sure that your quilt top is squared up. There are a couple of things to think about. The first is whether your corners are square, which you can check and correct with a large square ruler. The more important factor is whether you have wavy borders. I will do my best, but I may not be able to quilt out wavy borders. Please see instructions below on how to attach your borders so that your quilt lays flat.
- Piece and square your backing if necessary. Make sure that selvedge edges are trimmed away on pieced backing, and that seams are pressed flat to one side.
- Square up batting, if you are providing your own.
- Neatly fold quilt, backing, and batting for delivery. The creases formed by folding are very minor and will easily come out when the quilt is mounted to the frame.
I am happy to press quilt tops, or piece, square, and press batting; however, there will be a charge for these services. Please see the pricing page for more information.
Instructions for Attaching Borders
When attaching borders, many people find it convenient to simply make strips longer than the length of their quilt, attach the strips and then trim off the excess at the ends. Although convenient, this can lead to misshapen quilt tops and wavy borders. To make a nice square top, follow these simple steps.
Lay your neatly pressed top on a flat surface. To attach the side borders, measure the quilt top’s length in three places – each side, as well as the middle. Take an average of these three values and cut your borders to this length. Fold both your borders and quilt in half to find the middle and mark this spot with a pin. For a large quilt, I like to fold in half again and mark the quarters with pins as well. Matching pin marks, pin your border to your quilt top every three or four inches, easing in fullness if necessary. Sew and press this border.
For the top and bottom border, lay the quilt out again on the flat surface. Now measure the width of your top, including the side borders, in three places – the top, the bottom, and the middle. Again, take an average and cut your borders to this length. Pin, sew and press using the method above. This should leave you with a nicely squared flat top. If you are not perfectly square at the corners, feel free to use a ruler and rotary cutter to trim any excess fabric.
These instructions will need to modified slightly for squared or mitered corners, but the general idea should be the same.