My grandmother use to iron sheets for the bed. Then cover them up with a bedspread, tucked under the pillows. One time she had to go out of town for a few weeks to take care of her sister. I was in charge of the house. I did not iron the sheets and put them right back on the bed after washing and drying. My grandfather never noticed the difference. She never ironed sheets again. LOL

Not related to pressing, but wide backing...at the LQS wide backing yardage is torn rather than cut. This means the piece is now torn on grain and will be straight on the LA, thus straight on your quilt. LA'er here does not prewash, but mists with water as QuiltBaer mentions. Those new mister bottles work great as they have such a fine overall spray.

Personally I prewash and have manhandled the backing at the ironing board in the past, but now that I have a LA of my own, I may just mist the backing when I'm ready. I will still prewash...like how Macybaby does it:thumbup:

Haha - thanks for the offer Ellen but I think the postage would be a bit much!

Thanks everyone for all the tips and tricks. I'm waiting for the fabric to arrive as I type. Once it does I will definitely contact the LA'er to see how she wants it treated. Since all of the other fabrics are pre-washed I will minimally do that regardless. But as to specifics of pressing, I'll rely on her preferences.

I want to make sure I have all of this in hand before I commit to giving her either 2 or 4 quilts on Fri.

I pre-wash everything, and seldom press before I need to cut the piece. For wide backs, I do as others have mentioned, misting on the longarm and letting it do the work of eliminating any wrinkles.

I take mine to a local laundry/dry cleaners and have them press it for me. They do it for less that $10, press it nice and put it folded lightly (not creased) onto a wide hanger. It's worth it to me not to have to try to wrestle it on my ironing board.

I only prewash fabrics that might run these days. I test them first before going to that trouble, and it's usually the reds and the bright pinks that do. I just iron the backing fabric after buying and before delivering to a long armer. Even though you may have washed the top fabrics to avoid shrinkage, the finished quilt will still shrink a little because the batting shrinks. If the back shrinks, it will most likely be just a small amount.

I agree. As a longarmer, I recommend the backings be washed if the top fabric was washed. Fold the backings when they come out of the dryer, don't press. Even if they are not washed; when I load them onto the longarm frame I straighten and smooth and maybe mist them with plain water to remove any stubborn wrinkles.

I prefer wide backs and prefer that they edge is torn so straight of grain--and I always buy a larger cut as it definitely will shrink and also if not torn, getting the straight of grain sometimes means losing about 8"! I don't allow to completely dry (and don't pre-wash my go-to Moda Legacy white off the bolt), shake it out, drape over the long arm belly bar. Then when I load it I use a spray bottle to dampen and get out any wrinkles/creases, roll it back and forth several times and let sit overnite ready for quilting. I do use my regular ironing board or padding on my old dining room table to do pressing on really creased wide back. Check with your Long Armer and ask if they do this too--if so washing and shaking out semi-dry will probably be enough.

I only wash wide backs when I am ready to sandwich the quilt. The fabric warm from the dryer goes straight to the sandwich. I press with an iron like I am pressing a tablecloth all of it together. Works great and I only use spray around the edges. Of course I pin all thru the center.