jude by the sea

OK after yesterday wrestling and getting tangled in my batting I have to turn to my fellow quilters and ask what your secrets are to getting your batting cut square for a large quilt on a longarm frame. I mean really? If you all could of seen me yesterday...trying to get the batting the right size and nicely squared ... The batting grabbed me and sucked me into its soft web...here I was trying to fold it...no it had a mind of its own, it didn't want to be folded into a square, kept grabbing itself messing up my nice fold...LET ALONE TRYING TO GET IT IN POSITION TO CUT AND BEING SO THICK AFTER FOLDING IT TO FIT MY CUTTING MATT TO CUT. I mean really if you could of seen me...it was a scary movie in the making...BATTLE OF QUILTER EATING BATTING. It was like the batting engulfed me....what in the world is the correct way to cut a nicely squared batting? Please help and if I go missing please look in my batting!

thimblebug6000

Funny! Went searching for an answer but didn't find one for you yet, but I did find an article for long armers that was interesting reading. http://www.longarmuniversity.com/pdf...he_Machine.pdf Hopefully someone with a LA will pipe in soon for you if I don't find any useful info on the batting.

feline fanatic

I have seen some people put their roll of batting on a wooden dowl and suspend it from the ceiling. Then they unroll it like pulling toilet paper off a roller and just cut straight across with scissors. My LA frame has a table on the back for laying out pantos. I store my roll underneath. When I want to cut it, I pull the roll out from the back of the table and pull off what I need and toss it over to the front (keeping the roll at the back) and measure what I need. Then I make a little cut on both sides. I line up those cuts on my back table and just run my scissors along the lip of the table aiming for the little cut on the opposite side. I have also cut with a rotary cutter but then I have to move the matt along underneath. Much easier to cut with scissors. I always cut generously, adding a few inches to be on the safe side. Usually I round up to the nearest 1/4 yard measurement. This just makes for easier record keeping of my batting inventory.

ManiacQuilter2

I use to hang my 30 yard roll of Hobbs just as Feline mention above but I was pinning my quilts on the table to quilt them using my Bernina 1530.

PaperPrincess

I don't have mine suspended. I roll it out on the floor, lay the quilt top on and cut off what I need. I invested in a pair of batting scissors which really help. I cut the piece so that I can put the factory edge against the leader on the take up roller, so I know that edge is straight. I float my batting & top, so I just secure the top edge, then just unfold the rest of the batt. I don't try and cut it to length. I quilt the top, then cut the excess batting off before I remove the quilt from the frame.

jude by the sea

Well you guys have given me an idea....maybe a wooden dowel going across the bottom (I don't know where I would find a dowel that long) but I could hang the dowel or bar, put the roll of batting on and since I float my top and batting I could do as PaperPrincess says...quilt then cut it off at the end. BUT HAVING SAID THAT how would I unfold it because usually the batting is folded (my husband reminded me of that because when he walked into sewing room yesterday all he could do was to laugh as I was entangled up in batting ...folding unfolding trying to get it straight)! So PaperPrincess how do you deal with the folds? This is probably the easiest quandrom of quilting and I am making it into a mountain! Oh boy!

PaperPrincess

I float the batting & the top. I first get my backing on the frame, attaching it to both rollers, then roll it onto the front roller so that the top leader is exposed. I use the factory edge, so the batting folds are parallel to the bars. I unfold just enough to pin the factory edge to the backing, then unfold the rest. I carefully smooth the batting over the first area to be quilted. I have some storage bins under my frame and I just loosely roll the excess batting and lay it on the bins. Then I pin the top edge of the quilt top about an inch or so below the batting smooth it down and lay the rest on the bins. As I advance the quilt, I can reach under the top and smooth the batting, then smooth the quilt top down.

lindaschipper

Go to the hardware store and look in the wood trim section for a sturdy closet pole...dowel rods I don't think are sturdy enough to hold something that big. Hope this helps!!

JAGSD

I use my big table upstairs, a 8 1/2" ruler with grips on it and a 60 mm rotary cutter. I measure how wide I need it, leaving plenty for the sides. Then carry it to the long arm and only attach the one edge. The other floats and is kept taut and straight as I roll the quilt to be long armed.

Judylee2

My batting is on the dead bar. it is folded in half and measures 98 wide when unfolded. I usually take the Measurement of my quilt and if it it below 90", I just unroll the batting up and over my longarm until I have the length needed. I use batting scissors and follow one of the bars to keep it straight. Rarely do I try to use a rotary cutter the trip batting because there is always a factory edge.
PM me if I can heelp further.