Preparing for Quilting

The process I follow for quilting a top to a bottom is pretty similar to what you can find on many quilting blogs. I have a few additional steps, because of my house:

Step 1. Find a large enough uncovered floor-space on the wood floor to fit the quilt. This usually entails moving furniture around, rolling up a floor rug and/or cleaning the floor (we have a dog).

Step 2. Cut the backing fabric so it is several inches wider and longer than the quilt top. Joann's sells wide fabric for quilt backs - or you can go to Goodwill or a garage sale and find an old sheet. I like to use cotton. If you cannot find some backing fabric that is wide enough, piece something together.

Step 3. Cut the batting material so that is it is about one inch smaller in length and width than the backing material. I try to buy king-sized rolls of batting when I have a good coupon for Joann's.

Step 4. Use painters tape to lay out the backing fabric (wrong-side up) to the floor. It should be stretched to the point that the fabric is flat.

Step 5. Spread out and center batting on top of backing fabric and the quilt top on the batting. You should have rim of backing fabric and a smaller rim of batting visible around the quilt top.

Step 6. Pin the quilt together. I have a box full of safety pins. I leave the pins open, dump a handful on the quilt and begin to pin the three layers together. I usually start from the center and spiral out - pinning every 2 to 3 inches.

This seems like a tedious process - but it seems to be important for ensuring that the backing fabric stays flat and the layers stay in alignment when you sew them together. It is nice to have something good to listen to while you do this.

Once the quilt is pinned together, you can remove the painters tape and fold the quilt up until you are ready to sew it together.