Learning to quilt the edges
 

I have been practicing free motion with scrap blocks and am finding that in the middle I do, well, not spectacularly, but reasonably well for a rank beginner. However, the closer to the edge of the block I get the more loosey-goosey it gets and the harder to control, with nothing to hold on to at the edge. Tips? Suggestions? (I can see I will have a leetle more control with the real baby quilt because the backing is bigger than the top, but still...)

~ Carla ~

The extra backing helps a lot. If you have scrap fabric, or a piece of muslin, you can add an extra 'border' to the backing. Use a long stitch length, don't quilt over the seam, then remove it when you are done quilting.
Also, quilting gloves help. You can us official quilting gloves, or gardening gloves, anything with the rubberized palm & fingers.

So essentially I would machine baste a cheater strip down the sides of the backing and remove it later? Sounds easy enough. Thank you!

~ Carla ~

I have a long arm and have been advise to stitch a seam around the outside of the quilt, trying to stay at about 1/8 inch seam, just inside the 1/4 inch seam line. This will stabilize it and help prevent movement. Adding the extra border is an option I may have to use on a borderless quilt.

Making sure your backing/batting is larger than the top gives you something to hold onto. Also, stabilizing the edges in the beginning will improve your edges. And, of course, practice, practice, practice.

I sew a basting stitch length seam on the very outer edge of my quilt top and it is very helpful to hold all three layers together and flat when working on the borders. I also leave the extra 3-5" of batting and backing on the quilt until all the quilting is done and then trim just before binding.

I have seen online videos where the quilt sandwich is stabilized at the edges as you ladies are talking about. The baby quilt I hope to quilt next week has roughly 2 extra inches all the way around so that will help some. Also, I was at a quilt shop in the last couple of weeks and saw a professional long arm quilter working; I noticed she was stitching the edges down that way. For my practice pieces, I think I'll stitch edges but not add extra right now. Thanks for all the good suggestions.

~ Carla ~

What I've learned is to have a good 6 inches extra all around of backing fabric and batting. Then you have something to hold onto. I then use the cut-off parts as practice FMQ pieces or to check tension when I switch thread or bobbin when FMQ.