BACKING
Preparing And Choosing Your Backing Fabric?
The color of your backing fabric should
be a value similar to the thread you want to use for quilting
with. Machine quilting uses the same color thread in top and
bobbin so be sure the backing fabric supports this.
A
busy backing fabric will draw less attention to thread starts,
stops and anchoring stitches which are a part of machine
quilting.
How do you piece backing
if the fabric isn't as wide as your quilt?
If your backing fabric is directional,
you will need to piece in the appropriate direction. If you are
piecing lengthwise then you should measure the width of your
quilt, add 8" and figure out how many widths of fabric you'll
need to cover the distance. If you need 2 widths of fabric you
can either make 2 equal-sized pieces or you can use one piece
the full width of the fabric and then add two equal size pieces
to either side. Make sure you remove selvages from the backing
pieces and seam with 1/2" seams. Press open. Use a similar
process to piece width-wise.
How do you square your Backing Fabric?
The backing fabric needs to be square to mount correctly on the quilt frame. To square the backing fabric, fold it in half lengthwise
and align the cut edges. Shift the cut edges until the fold is smooth. This shift may cause the ends to be out of alignment. Fold the backing in half lengthwise again and again line up the long edges and make sure the fold is smooth. Use your ruler and rotary cutter to cut the ends of the backing square with the fold.
BORDERS
Preparing Your Borders
Pieced tops tend to flare around the edges because of the un-stabilized raw edges. To help bring the quilt back into square, follow these steps for applying square borders.
Start by cutting your four borders longer than they should be.
1. Measure the length of your quilt through the center and two
additional places a few inches either side of the center and average the three measurements
(fig 1).
2. Cut two of your border strips to this length. Fold each strip in half and mark the center with a pin.
3. Fold your quilt in half and mark the center with a pin.
If your quilt is long you may also want to mark quarters by folding strips and quilt in half again.
4. Matching the pins and ends, pin the border strips to the sides of your quilt
(fig 2), right sides together, and stitch with a 1/4” seam. You may have some fullness that needs to be eased in. If you are not using a walking foot you’ll find it easiest to ease in the fullness if the full side is down (against the feed dogs).
5. Press the seams toward the borders.
6. Measure the width of the quilt, including the borders you just applied, through the middle and two places each a few inches either side of the middle
(fig 3). Average these three measurements and cut the other two border strips to this length.
7. Follow the same procedure of marking centers and sew the borders to the top and bottom of the quilt
(fig 4). Press seams toward the border measure and average (fig 1), align centers (fig 2) measure and average (fig 3), align centers (fig 4).
Click HERE for our Helpful Hints Page that will help insure a successful quilting outcome.
Fig
1
Fig
2
Fig 3
Fig
4
Fig 3Fig 4
Click the images above for larger views.
