What happens with your quilt, part 2

**This is the second of three posts about what exactly happens to your quilt once I take it home for quilting. Part Two will cover everything i do to get your quilt ready for quilting as well as how i set up the machine for quilting. Please remember, every machine quilter has different ways of doing things. Just because I do things this way doesn't mean your machine quilter doesn't have a different way of doing things. Be sure to check with your personal quilter before assuming anything! ** 

What happens when its time to quilt your quilt? No its not as easy as just pinning the quilt on the frame and pushing a button, there is a lot more to it than that.

First up I pull the next quilt in line out of the closet and off its hanger. I hang that hanger with its number on the handle of a nearby drawer so I can easily look and see exactly what number and whose quilt I am working on. I do a quick check to be sure the backing fabric is straight (if its not I will straighten it up) and then, just to be safe, a quick second check to be sure the backing fabric is large enough for the quilt. I then take the quilt to the ironing board and give and "hard" wrinkles and creases a quick pressing using the lowest setting I can use just in case there is some odd fabrics or notions in your quilt top that might melt under higher heat.

Thanks you client for all that extra backing fabric! 

As long as the quilt is laying out over the ironing board I take the time to try and trim up as many threads from the back of the quilt that I can. These threads can shadow through the fabric and leave some not so pleasing to look at vein lines if they are left as is. This is also a great time to double check the seams, just to make sure there are not any that look like they might pull apart and fix them before I take the quilt back to the quilting machine. it is WAY easier to fix and popped seams now than once I start quilting the quilt! I will stitch any backing fabric together if you didn't do it already. You might be surprised to hear that I do not press backings, more on that in just a bit! And yes you do get charged for the time that it takes to trim all threads and fix any seams. I don't charge extra for the pressing of wrinkles and creases because honestly there is no way that anyone can keep creases and wrinkles from happening. if there is a excess of problems that need fixing I will contact the client before I start in, giving them the option to fix the quilt themselves or to pay me to do it for them. Most of the time I can press and trim threads in under 30 minutes.

This thread actually wasn't that bad, it was just the only one on the back of  this quilt top I could
find to show you but you get the ideal! 

At this point its back to the quilting machine were I take the backing and find the center point of the edge I will be pinning to the leaders of the frame and mark it with a pin. Then I match up the center mark with a center mark on the front leader and pin, starting at the center and working my way out. Yes I still use pins, I don't stitch the backing to the leader, I don't use staples, nor do I use clips to attach the backing fabric to the leaders. I have tried the clips, they work great but I find I can pin, taking just a couple more minutes than it takes me to use the clips. Its a personal choice and there really is no wrong way to do it! Once its pinned to the first leader I roll the extra fabric up on the front leader roller then go to the back leader and do the same thing all over again.

Start in the center and pin outward toward the edge to keep everything wrinkle, and pucker free!
See that heavy cream colored canvas? THAT is a leader! 

Remember when I said I don't press backing fabric? Its true I don't, I mist them ever so lightly with a very fine mist of water as I roll the fabric onto the leader rollers. Once the backing fabric is rolled up I allow it to dry for a bit. This will take out 99.9% of all wrinkles on the backing fabric without having to fight the large piece of fabric on a ironing board! Some machine quilters use a wrinkle reducer for this step but I find water does the job just fine.

Backing drying after I misted it lightly with water and tightened ever so slightly to remove most of the wrinkles

Have you ever heard of "Floating a quilt"? Well I do like to do what is called a Full Float. In other words the only part of your quilt that gets pinned to the frame is the backing fabric. The batting and the quilt top are left to "float" until its time to start the actual quilting and are not pinned to the leaders in any way.

So we already have the backing pinned in and tightened up on the rollers, now I find the correct bating and just lay it on top of the backing fabric. On large quilts O will stitch a straight line of quilting across the batting, not only to help hold it in place but to give me a straight edge to line up the quilt top with. Then I take the quilt top and lay it on top of the batting, using the stitching line if needed to be sure everything is nice and straight. I can't lie, on smaller quits I just wing it, its much easier to see if a small quilt straight versus a large quilt!

Batting goes down no top of the backing then the quilt lays on top of that.

I then take a few pins and pin the quilt top in place so it doesn't move around on me during the next step. now I like to stitch around the edge of the quilt before I start the quilting. This is totally optional but I always do it unless you ask me not to. Why? Well it helps hold everything in place during custom quilting. It also helps to ease in "extra: fabric you might have in your borders. And most of all its helps to have everything stitched down when its time for adding your binding! Just leave the stitching in place, stitch your binding on and trim off the extra backing. Or trim then add your binding whatever trips your trigger! Why would you not want the stitching around the edge? I have no clue but I have been asked by a few clients to not do it so for them I leave everything and just use a ton of pins to hold everything down until i have it quilted.

Stitching ( or just large basting stitches) around the edge of the quilt and easing in any extra wavy border fabric. 

Whats next? Quilting of course! I wont go in to a lot of detail on the quilting step in this post but instead let me answer the one questions I always get asked. "How long does it take to quilt a quilt?" There are a lot of things that can contribute to it taking a very long time, or taking just a short time to quilt a quilt. This week for instance I quilted two quilts that were just a couple inches difference in size. The smaller quilt took twice as long as the slightly larger one did. The first on was custom quilted with lots of ruler work, lots of stitch in the ditch and even more time spent on trimming all the threads that the client left behind. The slightly larger quilt took less than half the time, a simple quick allover quilting design and only a couple of threads to trim. The longest I have ever spent on a quilt was four days, everything (and i mean everything) was stitched in the ditch, it had tons of ruler work, lots of feather quilting that I wanted to match so each one had to be marked, and lets not forget that 14" border that had to be filled in. I am very proud of that quilt, and I wish I could have shared it with you but as a request from the quilt maker I can not. She made it for a wedding gift for her granddaughter and the wedding isn't until later this year. So until then all I can do is set on the photos and wait for the wedding to take place, hopefully then she will say OK to me sharing the photos with everyone.

OK, that's it for now. The next post will be the last of this three part series and will cover Machine quilting styles, as well as answering some more of the questions that I am always asked. I hope you have enjoyed everything so far & thanks for reading!

In case you were wondering, here is a couple of photos of the finished quilt I used in this post!
Construction Zone, made by Martha H. and machine quilted by Elizabeth Karnes. Quilters Dream Wool Batting and quilted with Master Quilter thread from WonderFil

What happens to your quilt, part 1

**This is the first of three posts about what exactly happens to your quilt once I take it home for quilting. Part One will cover taking in your quilt, as well as how I keep track of everything to keep it from getting messed up or worse yet lost! Some of you might think all my steps are overkill, and they might be, but there is a reason why I do what I do but we will get to that a bit later.**

If you have ever had me quilt for you before you already probably know I meet 90% of my customers at the local quilt shop The Wooden Spool, in Effingham IL on Saturday mornings from 10:00 - 11:00ish. on these days I can take as few as zero to as many as 30+ quilts home with me for quilting. No honestly, one time I brought over thirty quilts home for quilting in just one day. Granted it was Christmas cutoff weekend and at that time I only did pantograph quilting, but still it was a bit tricky to keep track of everything!

First up if I haven't seen it already, I take a look at your quilt and we talk about what you would like, what you wouldn't like, discus batting choices if needed, binding options, as well as thread color options and when I hope to be able to get the finished quilt back to you. I also make sure to get your contact info. I then load everything up and head back to my home studio. By the way, you are welcome at my home studio, just be sure to call and make a appointment first. other wise I might not be home, or worse yet you will get to see me dressed in my old PJ's or coated in dirt from working in the garden or mowing the lawn, and trust me when i say NO ONE wants to see that!

When I get the quilts home I take them directly into my quilting studio area. This area of the home is pet free, its blocked off by a door and I wear a apron over my clothes when quilting. However there is still the chance that some pet hair and dander can be transferred to your quit so if you have allergies to pets of any kind it might be wise for you to take your quilt else were for quilting.

Once in the quilting studio the quilts are, one at a time, removed from any bags that they were delivered in. I find the contact info and record it in a notebook along with details about your quilt such as pattern name, backing fabric colors, as well as batting brand, type and size if it was included.

Then I take a photo of the quilt. Each quilt top & backing are measured to make sure the backings are large enough (backing need to be at least 8" larger than the quilt top!) The quilt top and batting are then folded and placed on a heavy hanger, then placed into one of two closet areas in the studio room. Each hanger has a number that corresponds to the same number that is in my notebook. Each quilt gets a different number. If you sent batting along, then your batting will also be tagged with that same number. When I save the photos to my computer I add the same number as well as your contact info to the saved photo's information.

Closet #1

Closet #2

I follow this same list for each and every quilt that came in that day. Once I have them all recorded in my notebook I take the notebook to the computer and record the info there as well. Lets also not forget that original paper with your info on it, I keep them all in a box and add the number of the quilt to the back of it as well.

I use Google Drive so everything automatically syncs with the app on my iPad and my iPhone!  

Then, if you requested it or I suggest it, I take the photo I took of your quilt and sketch up a few different types of quilting designs for you to take a look at. I use a app on my iPad called Concepts to sketch directly on the photo. I will then email the sketches to you to pick quilting designs from.

Is it overkill? Yes it probably is but there is a reason why I keep multiple copies of your contact info as well as details on your quilt in more than one place.

Back when I first started quilting for others and my business was really taking off I lost my notebook and with that notebook I lost all the contact information for the customers as well as whose quilt was whose. Luckily at that time I only had a few quilts on hand so I was bale to work it out without to much of a problem except for one quilt. I could not remember whom it belonged to so I had to hold it until the owner contacted me. I really began to worry after a couple of months but finally the owner called and I was able to explain what happened. Luckily the quilt maker laughed and told me not to worry after all she had also forgot who she had given her quilt to!

Well that's it for today, be sure to check back in a couple of days for part two, "What I do to get your quilt ready for longarm machine quilting!"