How to prepare your quilt top

Follow this checklist to prepare your quilt. Variations in quilt design, and the inclusion of unusual additions, may mean you need further preparation.

• Ensure all seams on your quilt top are joined correctly
• Loose threads can inhibit the process so trim any that are loose. Be aware that untrimmed dark threads behind the quilt top may show after finishing on a light parts of a quilt so ensure they are cut.
• Carefully iron the quilt top to flatten seams
• Ensure no pins remain in your quilt top. Don’t use pins to attach it to the fabrics to be joined to it. They will be mounted to the rollers so won’t need this.
• Put any objects such as buttons and hard items on after the quilt has been longarm stitched as they might break a sewing machine needle or divert the line of sewing

How to prepare backing & wadding

 To help apply backing and wadding:

• Iron the backing and flatten all seams
• Remove selvage edges (the tightly woven edge of a fabric) before putting material together so the seam is flatter
• Square your quilt top and backing material. To do this iron them and lay them flat. Align all edges using rulers and cut excess material evenly and neatly to make them a perfect square. Quilts that are not square can pucker or produce flaws, such as tucks, due to excess fabric. Quilts need to be square to attach to the rollers on the longarm sewing machine correctly to get the desired result.
• Ensure your backing material and wadding are 4 inches larger than the quilt top on each side (8 inches combined). If the backing is too small it cannot be attached.

Other tips

Other things to consider include:

• Carefully consider the colour of your backing material as the colour of the thread used will be the same for both the back and front of the quilt which can affect its look
• Wideback fabric looks good as backing material because there are no unnecessary seams