Preparing your quilt for quilting
Piecing
- Press all seams accordingly as you are piecing.
- If they do not lay flat, this will cause folds and bunching on the top of your quilt. Puckers, tucks, and fullness cannot be quilted out.
- Make sure all seams are secure.
- Clip all loose/long thread tails on the front and back of quilt top. Dark threads may shadow under lighter fabrics.
- Twisted seams cause bulk which may cause a bump in your quilt.
- Avoid twisted seams by pressing to one side and alternating the direction with each row.
- If you have borders, try to make them lie flat. Wavy borders could result in small puckers.
- If your quilt is designed to have rounded edges, please wait until after the quilting is completed before rounding.
- Remove all pins.
- If the quilt top is directional, please mark the top with a safety pin and a note.
Borders
- Your quilt should be as square as possible.
- We will center and square the top to the machine and backing fabric as best as possible.
- We take every effort to keep your top straight by following the lines of your quilt top.
Backing
- Backing needs to be 6" to 8" longer in length and width than the quilt top (3" to 4" all around).
- Example a 60" x 60" top would have a backing that is 68" x 68".
- The additional backing is required for fastening the backing to the longarm frame.
- If seaming your backing, sometimes it helps stay stronger if you shorten your stitch length and use a 1" seam width, and press the backing seam open OR to one side.
- If your backing is directional be sure to mark which end is the top.
- We will do the best we can, but because as we quilt, the material shrinks a little, so we cannot guarantee your backing will be perfectly centered.
- We will do our best to center your backing but this is not always possible. when piecing your backing consider an off-center design.
Embellishments
- Please wait to put embellishments like beads, or buttons on until after the quilting is complete.
- If your top or back does have any embellishments we can "mask" them( quilt around), each mask is $ 7 extra.
- Prairie points should be added after quilting. if added before they will get sewn down in the quilting process.