HOW TO PREP YOUR QUILT BEFORE HAVING IT PROFESSIONALLY QUILTED

QUILT TOP

  1. Finished quilt tops should be neatly pressed upon delivery. If you are shipping it to us, we understand there will be some minor pressing on our part but we cannot accept a wrinkled, unpressed, or wadded-up quilt top. We do not offer a pressing or steaming service and will charge $25 extra, so please have your top pressed nice and flat before we receive it. All seams should be pressed nicely. Pressing either to the dark side or in the direction that allows the quilt to lay flat is sufficient. 
  2. Your quilt top should be a perfect square or rectangle. The edges of your quilt top should all line up and have 90-degree corners. If your top is not a perfect square or rectangle, then it will not load onto our frame straight. You’ll also want to make sure the quilt top lays flat when laid out. Waves and wrinkles are extremely frustrating to manage when quilting and can potentially result in unwanted tucks and gathers.
  3. Any seam that meets the edge of the quilt should be backstitched. While it isn’t imperative to backstitch every single seam in your quilt, backstitching the seams that meet the edge of the quilt is important. Otherwise, sometimes these seams come apart when the quilt top is loaded and pulled taut on our quilting frame. If you backstitch those edge seams, it ensures that your seams will stay intact throughout the quilting process. 
  4. It is helpful to make sure all applique is applied to the quilt top. You may still do your applique as you choose, just please make sure pieces are not flopping around and hanging off the quilt top.
  5. All stray threads should be clipped. Before you send your top my way, be sure to just do a quick final inspection and make sure any stray threads are clipped both from the front and the backside of the quilt top. This is especially important if your fabrics are white, or light in color as sometimes dark threads will show through, but only after it has been quilted. 

QUILT BACK

  1. Your backing fabric should be at least 4”-6” larger than your top on all sides. If your quilt top is 50” x 50” then your backing fabric needs to be at least 58” x 58”. The extra fabric is extremely helpful in accounting for any shifting of the quilt top that might occur throughout the quilting process. 
  2. Backing should be neatly pressed upon delivery as stated in the Quilt Top section. 
  3. The backing fabric must be a perfect square or rectangle. This is extremely important. If your backing is not square with 90-degree corners, it will never load onto our frame properly.  
  4. Pieced backing seams should run horizontally to the quilt’s orientation. Basically, when we load your quilt onto our quilt frame, the poles run horizontally. This means that not only will the seam run parallel to the top of your quilt, but parallel to our bars, which just makes our lives easier and minimizes the opportunity for the quilt backing to tuck or pucker, because there are equal amounts of layers loaded along the quilt frame poles.
  5. Avoid a “symmetrical look” if you plan to stylize your backing. We know that is super fun to create a backing that is just as cute and fun as the front. It is extremely difficult to line up the backing and the front exactly. So please avoid trying to create a backing that requires perfect alignment with the front.  

BATTING

  1. If you are providing batting, please make sure that your batting is at least 3” larger than your top on all sides. If your quilt top is 50” x 50” then your batting needs to be at least 56” x 56”. As with the backing fabric, the extra batting is extremely helpful in accounting for any shifting of the quilt top that might occur throughout the quilting process. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

  1. Do not layer your top, batting, and backing. All 3 layers of your quilt will be loaded onto the frame separately. So, don’t waste time putting them into one sandwich or pinning the layers together.
  2. It is helpful to label the orientation of your quilt top and backing. Labeling which end is the “top” is a great way to ensure that your top and backing will be oriented the way you would like it. We know that most of the time it is obvious, but labeling both the quilt top and backing will eliminate any confusion.