Preparing Your Quilt Top for Longarm Quilting
Allowing time and preparing your quilt top properly is essential!
Press your quilt top and any backing seams.
It is important to press seams flat as can be to avoid unnecessary bulk. This is
a good time to check for extra fullness in piecing and borders and correct the
issues. Extra fullness, especially in the borders, cannot always be quilted out.
Measure your quilt top. It is essential to have at least 4 inches of additional fabric around all sides of your backing fabric from the top measurements.
The backing fabric is loaded onto the machine first by us attaching a zipper to the top and bottom. The backing is then zipped onto the canvas, giving it an even equal distribution of stretch, and allowing the fabric to lay flat to avoid any puckers underneath.
The sides of the backing are then clamped on each side. The top cannot be too close to the zippers on top and bottom or clamps on the sides for the machine to stitch all the way to the edge of the quilt top.
There are many choices for batting. Several things to consider are weight, warmth and texture. Do you want natural fibers such as cotton or wool? Or warm, man-made polyester fibers? Or a blend ? Visit your local quilt shop for a variety of these selections. However we do recommend you purchase a quality batting. Our favorite is Quilter's Dream.