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Machine Quilting on Your Home Machine – Part 1

Hi everyone! I will be on the road for a bit so I thought I would cover a topic I’ve done before: small project quilting on your home machine. For the most part, I hire out quilting on my quilts that are larger than 48 x 48″. My long-arm quilting friends, who quilt large quilts as a business, definitely do a better job on anything larger than that.

So, this week’s and next week’s posts will guide you through machine quilting those smaller projects yourself. I hope to give you the confidence to give it a try and have fun doing it! Read on for my tips. This week, I will cover how to prepare the quilt top for quilting.

Preparing the Quilt for Quilting

Step 1: To start, you need to make what is referred as a quilt “sandwich” by layering your quilt top with batting and backing. For home quilting, my first tip is to cut the backing and batting about 1-2″ larger on all sides than the quilt top (photo below). This guarantees that the whole quilt top will have coverage to the edges. If you cut the backing and batting exactly to the size of your quilt top and it shifts during the basting and/or quilting process, you can end up with an area along the edge of your quilt that does not have batting and backing. Believe me, you don’t want to pick out machine quilting stitches!

**Extra Tips: For your large quilts you are sending to the long-arm quilter, be sure to ask them how much overlap of backing (and batting if you have to provide that) they prefer. 1 -2″ works for a small quilt top on a home machine, but they generally require more. I cut my backing  6″ larger on all 4 sides for a quilt that will go to my long-arm quilter. Also, if you need to seam together fabric for your backing, be sure to iron the seam open and flat to relieve bulk (photo below). This is a backing tip I received from my long-arm quilter.**

Step 2: To prepare your quilt top to be “sandwiched”, make sure all its seams are pressed flat, whether you press them to to the side or open. Flat seams make for a flat, less bulky quilt top for quilting. Also, remove any stray threads from the quilt top. Especially the ones that are in the seams. When you’re piecing a quilt top, threads often get caught in the seams (see circled areas in photo below).

Step 3: Next make sure your backing is pressed and as wrinkle-free as possible. Find a large table and tape the backing, right side down, to the table top to keep it smooth and tight without stretching it out of shape. Start on one side and make your way to the other side while smoothing out the backing as you go. If you are lucky enough to have a large, hard floor space to do this, that works too.

Once the backing is secured, lay the batting on top, smoothing it out. Be careful not to wrinkle the backing below.

Step 4: Center the quilt top on top of the batting. Smooth carefully so wrinkles are not created in the batting and the quilt top is not stretched out of shape. Use a ruler to make sure you did not stretch it out of shape. To do this, place the ruler on the corners as shown below. If the quilt top has not been distorted, you’ll have a nice 90 degree corner that matches the ruler.

Step 5: The final step in preparing the quilt for quilting is to baste it together to hold everything in place. You can either do that with thread or with safety pins.

  • Thread Basting Method: You can use white thread and a long running basting stitch in a grid pattern. Space the stitching 4 to 6″ apart. Start in the center of the quilt sandwich and work your way out. Since the stitches are long and widely spaced, you can clip and remove the basting from each section you are quilting as you go.
  • Pin Basting Method: This is the method I use. I pin 3 to 4″ apart, starting in the center of the quilt top and working out to make sure the quilt top remains smooth and flat. I also like to stagger the pinned rows and I use curved safety pins made specifically for quilt basting.

So that is how you prepare your quilt for machine quilting at home. Now you are ready to head to the machine and quilt it! Next week, I will share tips on the quilting process and my mini video tutorial that demonstrates it. My main goal with this post and next week’s installment is to make machine quilting on your home machine a bit less intimidating.

Share your questions and tips below in the comments. If you are a home machine quilter, do you have some advice to share? I am going to do a drawing among the commenters for a pair of machine quilting gloves that I like to use.

The drawing will be from comments from this week’s and next week’s posts so it will take place on Monday, February 6th. **We have a winner… Congrats, Marsha Thornburg!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Machine Quilting a Small Project – Part 1

Welcome! I thought this would be a fun topic for the next few weeks. We have all struggled with getting our quilt tops quilted. If you have access to a lot of long-arm quilters in your area you are so lucky! But many of us are in areas where there are not a lot of long-arm quilters available. That’s my problem. Scheduling in a quilt takes some time because the quilters are so busy, especially if they are really good at it! I reserve using my long-arm quilter for my large projects. So what do I do? I quilt anything that is under 48″ x 48″ on my home machine! That’s why I decided to talk about quilting smaller projects on your home machine. Now, you may not want to set your maximum quilt top size as high as mine and just stick with quilting tops that are smaller. That’s up to you. For those of you who are up to the challenge, this is the series for you. So let’s get started!

Preparing the Quilt Sandwich

To start, you need to make what is referred as a quilt “sandwich”. Funny name… but this is what quilters call it when you layer your quilt top with batting and backing. When doing this, I like to cut my backing and batting about 1-2″ larger on all sides than my quilt top (photo below). This guarantees that my whole quilt top will have coverage to the edges. If you cut the backing and batting exactly to the size of your quilt top, you could accidentally shift things while basting and/or quilting and end up with an area along the edge of your quilt that does not have batting and backing. Believe me, you don’t want to pick out machine quilting stitches!

**Extra Tips: If you are not going to quilt your own large quilt, confer with your long arm quilter on the amount of overlap of backing they prefer. I generally cut a backing 6″ larger on all 4 sides for a quilt that will go to my long arm quilter. And if you need to seam together fabric for your backing, be sure to iron the seam open and flat to relieve bulk (photo below). This is a backing tip I received from my long-arm quilter.

To prepare your quilt top to be “sandwiched”, make sure all your seams are all pressed flat, whether you press them to to the side or open. Flat seams make for a flat, less bulky quilt top for quilting. Also, remove any stray threads from the quilt top. Especially the ones that are in the seams. When you’re piecing a quilt top, threads often get caught in the seams (see below).

Moving on, make sure your backing is pressed and as wrinkle-free as possible. Find a large table and tape the backing, right side down, to the table top to keep it smooth and tight without stretching it out of shape. Start on one side and make your way to the other side while smoothing out the backing as you go. If you are lucky enough to have a large, hard floor space to do this, that works too.

Once the backing is secured, lay the batting on top, smoothing it out. Be careful not to wrinkle the backing below.

Now, center the quilt top on top of the batting. Smooth carefully so wrinkles are not created in the batting and you do not stretch the quilt top out of shape. Use a ruler to make sure you did not stretch it out of shape. Place the ruler on the corners to make sure they are still 90 degrees and not stretched.

The final step in the sandwiching of a quilt is to baste it together to hold everything in place. You can either do that with thread or with safety pins.

Thread Basting Method: You can use white thread and a long running basting stitch in a grid pattern. Space the stitching 4 to 6″ apart. Start in the center of the quilt sandwich and work your way out.

Since the stitches are long and widely spaced, you can clip and remove the basting from each section you are quilting as you go.

Pin Basting Method: This is the method I use. I pin 3 to 4″ apart, starting in the center of the quilt top and working out to make sure the quilt top remains smooth and flat. I also like to stagger the pinned rows. I like to use curved safety pins made specifically for quilt basting.

So that’s the quilt sandwich. Now you are ready to machine quilt your project. Next week, I will share tips on the quilting process and my mini video tutorial. My main goal with this post and next week’s installment is to make machine quilting on your home machine a bit less intimidating.

Comment or ask questions below. You will be entered into a drawing for my quilt pattern, Twinkle, Twinkle!

The drawing will be on Monday, April 18th so you have 2 weeks to enter! ***We have a winner! Congrats, Sharon M!***

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Machine Quilting Tips for Small Projects

I like to machine quilt my small projects on my home machine. For me, I consider “small” anything about 48 x 48″ and smaller. You may decide what you consider small to differ from my idea. For anything larger than my size parameter, I hire a long-arm quilter to do the job. It’s easier for them to work on the larger projects because they have those large machines, of course! Anyway, I thought I’d share my tips on preparing a quilt top for machine quilting.

Tip #1

To make my quilt sandwich, I like to cut my backing and batting about 1-2″ larger on all sides than my quilt top. This guarantees that my whole quilt top will have coverage. If you cut the backing and batting exactly to the size of your quilt top, you could accidentally shift things while basting and/or quilting and end up with an area along the edge of your quilt that does not have batting and backing. Believe me, you don’t want to pick out machine quilting stitches!

If you need to seam together fabric for your backing, be sure to iron the seam open and flat to relieve bulk.

Tip #2

There are a few steps to prepare your quilt top before “sandwiching” it. Make sure all your seams are all pressed flat, whether you press them to to the side or open. Flat seams make for a flat, less bulky quilt top for quilting. Also, remove any stray threads from the quilt top. Especially the ones that are in the seams. When you’re piecing a quilt top, threads often get caught in the seams (see below).

Tip #3

When starting the quilt sandwich, make sure creases and wrinkles are ironed out of the backing. Find a large table and tape the backing, right side down, to the table top to keep it smooth and tight without stretching it out of shape. Start on one side and make your way to the other side while smoothing out the backing as you go.

Once the backing is secured, lay the batting on top, smoothing it out. Be careful not to wrinkle the backing below.

Finally, center the quilt top on top of the batting. Smooth carefully so wrinkles are not created in the batting and you do not stretch the quilt top out of shape.

Tip #4

Now it’s time to baste the quilt top.

Method #1 – Thread Basting: You can use white thread and a long running basting stitch in a grid pattern. Space the stitching 4 to 6″ apart. Start in the center of the quilt sandwich and work your way out.

Since the stitches are long and widely spaced, you can clip and remove the basting from each section you are quilting as you go.

Method #2 – Pin Basting: This is the method I use. I pin 3 to 4″ apart, starting in the center of the quilt top and working out. I also like to stagger the pinned rows. I like to use curved safety pins made specifically for quilt basting.

Once the quilt top is basted, it’s ready for quilting! Like I said earlier, this is the way I prepare to machine quilt my small projects. There are many, many great resources for machine quilting. Try my tips… try other’s tips … try mine and other’s together. This will help you to find the right way for you!

I will cover the actual machine quilting in next week’s post. Comment below on some of your favorite machine quilting tips, and/or what you think of mine, to be entered into the ongoing pattern drawing for my pattern Warm & Wooly Welcome.

The drawing will be on Monday, March 2nd. Until next week…

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

***We have a winner! Congrats, Debbie Gross!***