So you have a beautiful quilt top that you have spent ages piecing and you would like to know what to do next. The good news is, this is one of the best bits of making a quilt! you take your quilt top, layer it up with wadding and a backing a suddenly it starts to feel like a gorgeously whole thing. It is now that it actually becomes a quilt.
You will need backing fabric. This can be any fabric that compliments the top. It can be plain, patterned, pieced, whatever you like. It can be any fibre, although being aware of shrinkage as an issue here, you would not want the top and backing to shrink at different rates. Pre-washing may help.I have two favourite backings to quilts that I have made. One that was an entirely different pieced quilt of the same size. I enjoy making quilts so why not make two! The other was made from a precut charm pack. I used some of the left over charm pack to insert a row into the plain fabric backing to make it wider. In the quilt pictured here I have used a stretch plush fabric. Its a bit trickier, but makes a lovely soft back.
Both of these need to be at least 3 inches larger than your quilt top.
- Lay your backing fabric right side down and smooth it flat. It is a good idea to secure this to the floor around the edge with masking tape to make sure it stays wrinkle free.
- Lay you wadding over the backing fabric. I use a swimming motion with my arms over the surface to push all of the wrinkles out.
- Lay your quilt top over this, again smoothing out all of the wrinkles by 'swimming' over the surface.
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| Your layered up quilt should look like this, you can see the excess wadding and backing fabric around the edge. |
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| Curved safety pins avoid wrinkles in the layers of the quilt |
You will need a walking foot. They are a pricey piece of kit, and look a bit alarming, but they are worth the expense and are very much your friend. The action of a walking foot ensures that the layers of the quilt move through the machine at the same rate. Without it you will find the top and bottom move at different rates and you will have twists and wrinkles.
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| A walking foot, quilting guide and screwdriver |
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| The walking foot attached to the sewing machine. |
To attach the walking foot you will need to locate the screw that holds the entire foot onto the shank, undo this screw (you may be able to see it just above the foot in the photograph) You also need to hook the arm of the foot over the screw that you use for changing the needle on the right hand side.
Before you start to stitch your quilt make sure you practise on an offcut made from the same layers as your quilt sandwich. Do this every time that you rethread your needle, change the settings or restart. it will save the heartache of trying to unpick your beautiful quilt if something is wrong,
You may see suggestions that as a beginner you should 'stitch in the ditch'. this is where the sewing line runs between the blocks along the piecing line. Although this provides a useful guide it is also a bit unforgiving of the odd wobble, any stitching out of line will show up. I prefer to 'stitch next to the ditch'. You can see that I have lined the toe of my foot up with the edge of the block so the needle will come down next to, but not in, the line of piecing.
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| Stitch 'next to the ditch' |
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| roll the bulk of the quilt to feed it through the machine |
Start your quilting across the middle of the quilt and work out to the edges, this should avoid too much movement between the layers. I am quilting lines all of the way across the width of this quilt. To make life easier, roll up the bulk on the right hand side of the quilt. If possible try to support the weight of the quilt to the left on your table top, this will avoid it pulling as you sew
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| run the guide bar along the previous line of stitching |
You can space your stitching lines using the pattern made by the piecing of the quilt, but if that is not possible, or you would like your quilting closer together then you can use the guide that comes with your walking foot. This is a metal bar that usually clips or slides into the back of the walking foot. You can set it to to stick out from the right or left side. You may need to change sides as you quilt different lines, so measure the spacing that you choose so it can be replicated. You then run the metal bar along the previous line of stitching to ensure parallel lines. I have used this successfully to create concentric circles, so be creative.
Remember to check the reverse of the quilt regularly, if you get a wrinkle or pucker you want to sort it out as soon as possible or you may have a lot of unpicking to do. Also remember to bring your bobbin thread to the top before you start to sew or you could find an unsightly birds nest on the back.
Once you have quilted the entire surface you can admire your handy work. It is now a gorgeous, cosy, drapey whole.
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| Square up the quilt, cutting away excess wadding and backing. |
The last job left for now is to tidy the edges up. For this I usually use my biggest cutting mat and rotary cutter. Your aim is to square the whole thing up and to trim the edges of the wadding and backing back to be flush with the quilt top. Depending on the size and complexity of the quilt and accuracy of your sewing, you may prefer to trim with a pair of scissors and leave your quilt top not entirely square to avoid compromising the pattern.
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| The excess has all been trimmed away and the quilt is squared up. |
Your quilt is now ready for the finishing touch, binding!
I have recorded a video tutorial for that which is available on YouTube.
I can be reached via Messenger on my Yelling Pig Facebook and Instagram accounts. I am always happy to answer questions and would love to see your quilts.
Good luck with
