Are you sure you can get it longarmed in time to meet your deadline?
No, I'm not sure. :) Good thinking though, I didn't consider that. However, after reading, I'm going to be brave and try machine quilting, so now I don't care!
Bearding is not caused by the type of machine that does the quilting, but by the type of batting you use.
Ah-hah!
All-polyester batting is the worst for bearding, although nowadays some have resin coatings that delay or prevent bearding. If you want the fluffiness of poly, my recommendation is to get Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 (80% cotton, 20% poly). Cotton battings do not beard and, in my opinion, hold up to frequent washings better than poly. The lovely vintage quilts we all admire were made with 100% cotton batting. It holds up to wear!
I did want cotton batting, but didn't do enough searching to find it (as in, didn't really look at all, just bought the first batting I found, thinking, well it's poly, what does it matter? Beginner :) ). Where can I find the heirloom batting? Anywhere? JoAnne's? Walmart? What about cotton batting? That's honestly my first choice for that exact reason- vintage quilts are so soft and nice...
If you decide to machine quilt, I highly recommend starching the backing fabric heavily before layering. This prevents puckers and tucks underneath. I use a 1:1 solution of liquid Sta-Flo laundry starch and water, lay the backing on my kitchen island, "paint" the starch on using a large wall painting brush, throw the saturated fabric into the dryer, then iron with steam. This makes a nice stiff backing that won't pucker when you machine quilt. If you use a cotton batting, you can then spray baste the quilt sandwich together in a few minutes rather than pin basting or thread basting (both of which take a lot more time). Spray basting doesn't always work well with polyester batting, especially if the backing has been starched.
AH-HAH!!! Genius! I had never thought of that! GREAT idea!!! I had just considered a quick hand baste in addition to pin basting it before I 'ditch' stitched, to keep the back from puckering.
On those lines, what do you think about mixing hand quilting (again, considering my timeline of Dec 18 to be complete!!) with machine quilting? Will that look silly?
Also, I have a fleece to complete the back, should I do some nice white cotton instead (have lots left from some of top)? I just thought fleece because she's little and even I love cozy quilts... but in 15 years is that not going to look nice, but cotton would age and look more appropriate? I had originally gotten the cotton for the back, fleece for the edges, but then switched gears. Now I'm quad-guessing myself.
Ahh... Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm so nervous to do this- it's the first quilt ever- but I'm a major perfectionist so when it's done I don't want it to look thrown together. My sis-in-law isn't exactly the homemade-quilt-type-of-girl, but it's for her daughter and I really wanted to do something nice for Christmas for the little girl who has everything; thus part of my nervousness.
I will post pictures once I get more done- I came up with a design, I'm sure it's not an original idea, but easy enough for me to sew and I think it's pretty. That's all that counts, right?!
Thanks again!