steps after quilting
 

This question is probably a day late and a dollar short since I've been quilting 2 yrs now, but i either read or heard something and it's got me wondering.

What steps do you do after you have quilted your quilt in order to make your quilt ready for binding?

All I do is trim it, making sure the corners are square. Then bind.

Tartan- Doesn't that make your borders look off?

I took a quilting class. That's where I learned to quilt. The only thing they had us do was lay the quilt out and then trim 1/4" over the border for the binding. No one ever told me I was suppose to *square up* my quilt at the end. At the end when I'm trimming you can see that the quilt has shifted and nothing seems completely straight anymore.

This is all I do too!

Some people "block" a quilt to help square it up. IMHO squaring up and blocking are really only necessary if the quilt is to be hung in a show or on a wall. Rarely will you notice a slightly out of square quilt laying on the bed and you will never notice it if it is in a perpetual state of being snuggled in.

Here are a few links for blocking and squaring up after quilting and before binding
http://www.kimmyquilt.com/article/blockingaquilt/
https://www.leahday.com/art-blockingquilt/
https://cowtownquilts.wordpress.com/...block-a-quilt/

Just google how to block a quilt and you will get loads of hits.

in my opinion, a quilt that was properly constructed does not need to be blocked to lay properly.

I do something like tartan does, except I have a 96x38 inch table to lay it on. i trim the backing and binding even with the top.

I sew the three layers together about 1/8 inch from the outside edge. it makes it easier for me to apply the binding because then I do not need to worry about missing one of the layers.

. I also baste the edges of my binding together before sewing it on to the quilt. I usually use bias binding and seeing it together prevents one edge from "walking" ahead of the other.

with the edges sewn, I am basically lining up two sets of edges, instead of trying to kee p five separate edges together.

Even the most meticulously constructed quilt can be distorted in the quilting process. Machine quilting distorts more than hand quilting and longarm quilting distorts more than DSM quilting. It is just the nature of fabric to want to stretch distort or contract when being manipulated by the quilting process. Every quilt I make is perfectly square when it goes on the rack but I have yet to have a quilt come off the rack that is exactly the same measurements it was before quilting. It may only be off fractions of an inch, but it is different.

in my opinion, a quilt that was properly constructed does not need to be blocked to lay properly.

I do something like tartan does, except I have a 96x38 inch table to lay it on. i trim the backing and binding even with the top.

I sew the three layers together about 1/8 inch from the outside edge. it makes it easier for me to apply the binding because then I do not need to worry about missing one of the layers.

. I also baste the edges of my binding together before sewing it on to the quilt. I usually use bias binding and seeing it together prevents one edge from "walking" ahead of the other.

with the edges sewn, I am basically lining up two sets of edges, instead of trying to kee p five separate edges together.

This is me, too. I just cross my fingers a lot if it's one that's going to hang, LOL.

I machine stitch my binding on before I trim away the backing and batting. The backing seems to lay smoother and doesn't get the puckers in it like it does if it's trimmed. I also pin on the binding before I stitch it on the front. After it's stitched on, I trim away the extra using scissors, leaving about 1/8th inch of the batting beyond the edge of the seem allowance and hand stitch it down in the back. I lost points at a quilt show because my binding was not full so I've done it this way since.

I do things the way tartan does too, if its a large quilt, small ones I can usually do one side at a time on the long arm table. But, I'm usually crawling around the floor, I use a roller chalk marker then have a large cutting mat I can slide under the quilt for cutting on my straight lines

This is my method also. I do trim excess backing and batting down to a few inches and then sew the binding onto the frontof the quilt. Having the extra backing and batting helps the feed dogs pull the quilt through as the binding is being sewn on.

I also do a stay stitch or long stitch or zig zag around the edge first to make sure every thing stays in place before I sew the binding on. I do this just inside the 1/4" seam allowance.

Here is a tip to help with binding that is one of the best things I have come across recently.

http://www.freequiltpatterns.info/vi...trick-lose.htm

It really helps when doing corners.
peace

By the time I get it quilted, I figure it is too late to change anything, so I just sew the binding on. So far, things have worked out pretty well. :D

LOL! I love your attitude! That's sort of how I work, too. As long as the quilt isn't going to fall apart or isn't a special gift, any problems I notice in THIS quilt are things I'll keep in mind for the NEXT quilt...I'm not unstitching anything I don't HAVE to!

It might help you to run a basting thread along the outside edges of the quilt to keep it from shifting. I can no longer get down on the floor, so I use two ironing boards side-by-side with 2 light plywood sheets 40 by 96 over the top of the ironing boards. I use rulers, as others have suggested, to straighten the sides.

I normally make my border a bit wider so I just trim it down, that's all !!

Me too, me too.

Square the corners, bind and go!! I do not make show quilts.

Mine will never go into competition. I always visually square up on my bed. I measure top side to side, middle side to side and bottom side to side. Then I measure on the diagonal NW to SE and NE to Sw. Also top to bottom, sides and middle. I use graph paper. Works for me.

Visually lineup with edges of my bed but still measure accordingly.

I would square up before I put on the borders.. but sometimes that can cause problems too :) if I am off square and try to fix then one of my squares can look smaller than the others. The most helpful thing that I have found to do is to sew about 1/8" from the edge all of the way around. It seemed like a pain at first, but that really keeps the quilt backing from slipping out while I am sewing the back side of the binding down. (I use machine, I don't hand sew that binding one)

me too, except I sew with large stitches around the perimeter before trimming so binding is easier.

I do the same.

I usually square up the corners if they look catawampus, then bind.

BUT after reading the third link at Cowtown Quilts, if I ever decide to do the whole blocking production, her method makes the most sense to me.

*LOL* Guess who will get a nifty laser square for Christmas?

And guess who will say be saying "Honey, can I borrow your laser square?" :D

Hahah! I do this to my DH all the time. He's starting to catch on, though....since most of "his" tools live in "my" workroom! LOL

Same here. Why do extra work? If the quilt has any issues, my trimming will just make it smaller with the same issues. I make sure the top is square before quilting.

This what I do as well.

me too,lol . HUGS

I was taught to stitch my binding on first then cut off the excess fabric not before, come to think about it I've never seen it cut before the binding is sewn on. I would love to see Tartan do hers it sounds really interesting.

I have a 60 inch cutting table so I line my 24 inch ruler along a seam if I can and trim all the way around. Usually I have a seam from the borders that I can easily follow if not I will add another ruler to help me achieve the width I want to cut.

I trim using my borders as a guide. For example, I line my ruler up with the seam where the border has been sewn to the quilt top, then trim the width of the border all around...making sure each corner is an accurate 90 degrees.

Thank you!