Quilt sandwich questions
 

When preparing a the layers of a quilt for quilting do you square up the backing and batting? I know that they need to be a few inches larger, my question is more do you actually cut them to that size. For example I just prepared a quilt that is 48" square, however my backing and batting are several inches larger and I did not make sure they were square, just larger. Is it better to make sure they are square and cut those pieces to 50" inches, or does it make any difference how much bigger as long as they are bigger? And is it critical that they be square. I plan to machine quilt this myself if that makes any difference to replies on the subject.

I hope my question makes sense.

Thanks,
Jenna

No, it does not matter if it is square, just larger. Sometimes the quilting takes up more than an inch on both sides, so
I leave as much as I can. Good luck.

I try to get my backing as square as possible but my batting is never square. It seems like no matter how hard I try when I cut the piece off the roll it's crooked. I've learned to live with it as long as it's bigger than the top.

I think the most important thing to do with the back when you are sandwiching a quilt (after you've made sure it is large enough for the quilt) is to make sure it is on the sandwich straight. Extra inches on the sides and ends doesn't seem to make a difference, but an off-kilter backing has caused me to remove all quilting from ONE quilt, and start over.

I learned my lesson.

I cut both a few inches larger all round, but not necessarily an exact match, in your case depending on width of fabric, if it was 54 or 60 inch wide I would cut a piece a few inches longer but not bother cutting the width down until I had finished quilting. Similarly if my quilt is big and I'm using 108inch wide I wouldn't trim the width just the length and then trim after quilting.

It doesn't have to exactly squared, remember once it is quilted you will trim and square the whole quilt. But the grain must be straight or you will have stretching and all kinds of trouble while you are try to quilt.

Totally agree here. I just make sure I have a few inches all the way around but do make sure that the backing is on grain.

It's easier to load the backing onto a longarm frame if it's squared up, but not critical. Batting doesn't matter.

I'm there, doing that and hope I never, never, ever have to do it again (queen size quilt)