Long Arm quilting question
 

I made this patriotic quilt and was gonna just make a regular backing, but found a panel I like and now want it to be reversible. My question is will that create a problem for getting it quilted on a longarm

The only problem I forsee is the difficulty in centering the back relative to the front. If you make wider borders on the back, and don't mind if they are a bit unequal (esp top/bottom, as those are the hardest to balance) then I don't see why it would create a problem.

I don't know what your quilt looks like, but if you use an allover star pattern, it won't make a difference which is the front or back.

The fact that the back will be pieced doesn't prevent quilting it on the longarm. It may mean that the stitching going through the panel will interfere with the panel's design, but that may be okay. And as Krista pointed out, the panel may not be centered perfectly.

You might be happiest if you intentionally set the panel off center. Then lining it up won't be an issue.

If the panel needs to be dead on centered, there may be an issue. I agree with the poster who suggested an off center placement. I would call your LA quilter and ask her and if she thinks it's OK, I would pin a sheet of paper to the top of the quilt with info on how you want the back panel placed, so when it's your quilt's turn on the frame the instructions don't get lost/forgotton.

I did a quilt with a panel in the center of the back, that was a boogaboo when it came to sandwiching, to keep it centered. I was successful, and it was gorgeous, but I think heretofore I wondst do it again!

When I get the quilt ready I mark the center of both the front and the back by folding into quarters. That should center the back and the panel will be centered. I don't see any problem at all. If someone see's a flaw in my technique please let me know since this has always worked for me, but I haven't had a panel that HAD to be centered.
Sue

Susie...sometimes the tension on the top fabric and bottom fabric are slightly different, so it might be easy to center left to right, but not always easy to do it top to bottom. I like the deliberately off center plan. Then, it doesn't matter if it's centered...great idea.

Sue, this is fine to do when you're quilting on a DSM, but it won't work on a longarm. You load the back onto two rollers, then lay the batting on top, then load the top. It's very difficult to center the top on the back, since part of the back is already rolled up, and if the quilter who pieced the back doesn't understand how the longarm works then she may not have allowed sufficient fabric to do it readily.