amma

I think you did a great job on this quilt! :D:D:D

If you choose polyester batting, try a low loft. High loft is a little more difficult to work with :wink:

Warm and Natural is what I use the most, it is warm, but being cotton it breathes well :D:D:D

Butterflyblue

I love the black combined with the florals. Looks very pretty!

I do like cotton batting, but make sure you pay attention to what the package says as far as maximum distance between quilting lines.

As far as the corners of your squares not matching up, believe me, it is not nearly as bad as the corners in my first quilt, which were off by nearly half an inch at times. But I tied it, so I put ties over the corners and it hid the worst of it.

And also, my first machine quilted quilt, I cut backing equal to the batting and top, and when I was finished, it had "shrunk" and was up to 1" smaller in places than the top:hunf:, so buying enough batting and backing materials is important!

Prism99

Hobbs 80/20 is a very nice batting to work with. The batting you choose depends a lot on how close you plan to quilt. Some battings require closer quilting than others. The label on the package will tell you how close quilting lines need to be.

The easiest way to machine quilt, in my opinion, is with a walking foot but making wavy/curvy lines instead of straight lines. The curving lines mean that any small deviation won't stand out to you as a mistake. Make up a small quilt sandwich to practice on. You can make all wavy diagonal lines, or wavy diagonals both ways (which ends up as a wavy crosshatch).

Batting should be cut larger than the quilt top, and backing should be cut larger than the batting.

For the backing fabric, there is no need to line up seams. The traditional method is to buy 2 lengths of fabric, split one of those lengths in half, and attach the halves to each side. This leaves a full width in the middle of the quilt. However, you can vary the backing any way you want. One technique I have seen and liked was to slash the main backing fabric diagonally (not corner to corner, but side to side) and insert a contrasting strip of fabric. Really perks up the back!

One thing I highly recommend is heavily starching your backing fabric before layering. This will cut down on puckers in the back. I use a 1:1 solution of Sta-Flo liquid laundry starch and water. It helps to spray starch the top also.

Confederate Rose

Most of mine don't line up. I'm not as good as these ladies. When i quilt it's usually always in the seams and if the seam is off, I follow the seam. No one will ever notice. Looks good to me!

hlponyfarm

You are all such a great help! thank you. My sisters bday is the end of March so I have a little bit of time to get this finished. the big chore is actually driving to JoAnns. Its about 20 miles of bad traffic to get there and you really have to be in the mood to go. LOL I have to actually bribe my hubby to go with me. usually with food. ;) JoAnn

newbee3

you could use monofilament clear for std

sewingsuz

I think the quilt is very nice and good job. You got some excellant advise on here and I can use all of it also. thanks to everyone.

purplefiend

I like cotton batting for machine quilting, it sticks to the cotton fabrics and cuts down on shifting when quilting.

didi

I like the X idea or you could tye it, just a thought.

Tropical

What great advice all of you ave given. It looks like you have covered all of the bases and I learned a lot about batting and I like the backing options, too. :)