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Preparing Quilt Top and Backing
1. Are the thread ends trimmed? Stray threads can show through the finished quilt and detract from the beauty of your finished quilt.
2. Is the quilt top pressed so the seams are flat? This is really important and can make a big difference in the final look of the quilt. It is okay if some of the seams are twisted; that happens when you quilt. But you really want to iron them as flat as you can. Iron from the finished side (the front), and if you use starch or sizing it will be really easy to handle and nice to quilt. If you bring it in pressed, trimmed and placed on a heavy duty plastic or wood hanger to minimize how many times you need to fold it, that would be really lovely!
3. Do the borders lay flat or are they wavy? Sometimes we can compensate for wavy borders by using puffy batting or quilting densely in the borders, but I have seen quilts where the border had an extra 8" of fabric each, and that is pretty hard to quilt out without making tucks. The best way I have found to make flat borders is to fold the quilt in half lengthwise and measure the center of the quilt and make the side borders the same length as the center measurement, NOT the edge measurement.
After you attach the side borders, fold the quilt in half the other way and measure the crosswise center (including the borders you just put on) and make the other borders the same length as that center measurement, not the edge measurement. I know the pattern makers tell you how long to make the borders, but they don't know if your seams are a perfect 1/4 inch, so what works perfectly in a pattern may not work on your quilt.
4. Lay your quilt flat on a bed or floor and see if the blocks lay flat. If they do, you have my utmost admiration! If they don't, welcome to the club! You could take the whole quilt apart and go back and cut all your blocks to make sure they all lay flat, but that is way too much work and probably not worth the time, unless you plan for this to be a show quilt.
We can often compensate for imperfect piecing by using a puffier batting or by quilting more densely in some parts than in others.
5. Is the quilt clean? I have received quilt tops that smelled mildewed or smoky. Quilt tops should be clean and free of odors.
That's the scoop on quilt tops. Trimmed, pressed, borders even, relatively flat, and clean. We would LOVE to quilt that!
Now let's talk about backs.
1. Your quilt back should be a MINIMUM of 3-4" bigger than your quilt top on each side. That means a total of 6-8" longer and 6-8" wider. That is because we will use that fabric to attach the quilt to the bars and side clamps of our frame. We also use the side edges to test the tension of our machine to make sure our settings work perfectly with your quilt. Also, backs and batting tend to shrink up during the quilting process. If your back is the same size as your top, we will ask you to make it bigger or we will do it for you and charge you for the work and fabric.
Some quilters trim the quilt for you after they quilt it, others return it to you untrimmed. If they return it untrimmed, you can often use that extra backing for binding. If your quilter does the trimming, you should ask her to save the excess for you. If there isn't enough for binding, you can always cut it in strips or squares and use it on another quilt.
2. If you piece your backing, which is most often the case, make sure to trim the selvages off. They will shrink unevenly when you wash the quilt and create a puckered line. Use a 1/2- 5/8" seam and press the seam open. That will minimize the bulk in one area as we roll the quilt back on the frame and minimizes any resulting waves. Ideally, the quilt back can be loaded so the seam runs parallel to the bars, taking the bulk of the seam out of the equation, but that may not always be possible depending upon the kind of quilting we are doing, especially with directional pantographs.
3. Square up your quilt back. If it is 6" longer on one side than the opposite side, we will have to square it up before we can attach it to our frame. You can do this by folding it in quarters and using your rotary cutter and rulers to trim it even. Just make sure the back ends up at least 6-8" longer and wider than the quilt top.
4. Press the back. Using starch or sizing makes it easier to handle.
Your quilt back should be big enough, have pressed open seams without selvage, square and pressed.
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Here at Sew Fun, Connie specializes in edge-to-edge quilting and Emily specializes in more custom work. Pricing for edge-to-edge generally runs around $.02 per square inch and customer prices vary. Again, once you drop off and discuss your preferences with the longarmer, we can give you a better idea what the price per square inch will be.
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Estimating the cost of your quilt is done by multiplying the length times the width to get the total square inches. Then multiply this amount by $.02, which is our minimum price per square inch for edge-to-edge quilting.
Estimate the amount of batting you need (battings range in width from 96", 108" or 120" depending upon type) and multiply by $9.00 per yard (some battings cost more, some less). In your estimate, be conservative and use 96" in your calculation.
If one thread color is used, then the thread charge is $5.00. If multiple thread colors are used then the prices is $12.00.
Add all of the above prices together to get the estimated cost to have your piece quilted. More details will be provided when you turn in your piece to be quilted and you discuss the finer points with your longarmer.
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We use a large range of batting types here at Sew Fun, but our most popular battings are as follows:
Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Unbleached - 96" wide
Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Black - 108" wide
Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 - 96" wide
Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 - 120" wide
Hobbs Heirloom 100% Natural - Unbleached Cotton - 96" wide
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Here at Sew Fun we use quilting weight thread in a wide variety of colors and we change thread colors as needed and/or discussed at the time you drop off your quilt top.
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Turn around time for quilting depends largely upon the time of year. The Christmas rush generally starts in early August, so if you have someting your need by Christmas you need to be sure to have it to us early. If in doubt, please give us a call to see how our schedule is looking as we might still be able to fit you in.
If you have need to receive your quilt back by a specific date, please be sure to communicate that with us when you drop off it off we will let you know if our schedule will accomodate that.
Payment is due upon completion of the quilt.
Although we accepted a cow as payment on one occasion (no joke!!!), we much prefer coin of the realm (US Dollars) in the form of cash, check or MasterCard / Visa.
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