Introduction & a question!
 

First off, I have been lurking for a while and have learned so much. I have only been quilting for a short time. Life happened and it got put on the back burner. Now for my question, I have my top and my back ready to sandwich, but my back is only about 1.5" larger all the way around than my top. Do I need to extend the back or will I be okay to quilt as it is??????

Thanks for your help. My day starts here with my coffee every morning!

You should be fine. Do you plan to bind the quilt with something else or were you going to flip the back over?

Welcome, Nonda. If you're going to quilt it yourself on your domestic sewing machine, you should be fine although the backing may draw up some when you quilt it. If you're going to send it out to a LA quilter, they will need about 4" extra on each side to attach it to the leaders and leave room for the clamps on the sides.

Hi, you should add a border all the way around your backing. You backing should be at least 4in larger than your quilt top. So should your batting. Good luck , please post your quilt. karen

If you are quilting on your machine, you're fine. I never have mine draw up at all, so I've had my backing even with my top if necessary. I do like a couple of inches to grab when maneuvering the quilt, but if I'm close on fabric, it works.

Hi and welcome to this board. I have found that 2" all around the quilt top is enough, if you center the layers together. I quilt all my quilts on my regular sewing machine. Good luck.

Welcome to the board from Texas.

Welcome!! May this be the first of many posts and pictures from you here in the future.
How large is your quilt?
Are you machine quilting on your home machine?
Baste well, as close together as 4" apart, and you'll likely be just fine.:)

Jan in VA

Welcome to the board. Can't wait to hear what design choices you make.

Hi from Ohio!

Hi from Minneapolis! I'm assuming that your batting is not a high loft and that the sandwich is either closely basted by hand or spray-basted. If that's the case then I think you'll be just fine - I do FMQ on a regular machine and haven't had any problems with the backing being only a couple of inches larger than the top.

I agree you'll be fine. I have found too much waste when you keep 4in all around. I hand quilt, machine and quilt on a long arm and never had a quilt not match up leaving less then 4 in. Can't wait to see it!!!

I guess I should have posted more information! The quilt top is 64 x 82. The bottom is about 1.5" larger all the way around. I did buy low-loft batting. I will be adding a cream binding. I will be quilting on my Janome Sew Precise. Someday, I'm gonna get a machine with a larger throat space! I can only do straight lines.....I will probably just do a crosshatch.

My biggest concern was that the top is all 9-patch squares with ALOT of seams! Also, because I didn't think about the quilting when I was sewing the top, I doubled the cream fabric. I didn't like how the burgandy showed through so much ~ so needless to say it is HEAVY!

So - now that you know how goofy I am, can I get by with the bottom or do I need to add some more to it?

P.S. I bet you can tell where I'm from, huh????

I agree that you should be fine. I've had that problem before and it worked out very well. Welcome, glad you could join us!

Howdy and welcome, from Texas! If you baste very carefully, you should be able to make it work. If it were me, I'd use Warm & White batting and Elmer's School Glue, to baste. That stuff if wonderful, at keep everything in its place!