are you quilting it or sending it out? you can make it work-
if sending it out to a long-armer simply add some muslin (leaders) basted on all the way around to give her a little more to work with---talk to her about it- she will advise you- if you are quilting it yourself baste very very well- and as long as you don't quilt it too heavily you will probably have plenty- the more quilting there is the more (draw up) of the fabric there is- so if the quilting is not very intricate it won't draw up alot. i long-arm and have had many with that much (or less) i just baste muslin on to give me something to pin to when loading- and allow room- it does take extra care & can cost a little more due to more work- but it is a doable situation.

I think this can be done, especially if you baste some fabric to it all around to give the longarmer someplace to place the side clamps, without them getting in the way of the hopping foot when quilting along the edges of the quilt. Make sure you discuss it with her first, of course, and I agree with everyone else who said to sew the extra fabric on with a regular stitch. Good luck!

I too, have LA'd with way less than the desired 4" all around, as long as 1) The quilt is small (yours is); 2) the quilt is
squared up, and 3) they don't want too heavy quilting on it. If all three conditions are met, you shouldn't have any problems; if they're not, I would add the extra backing and batting for insurance and quilt away. Good luck!

Don't worry. I have done quilts on a LA with that amount of extra around the edge. It is a small quilt and if the quilting isn't very dense there should be no problem. Try some people on the QB. I am thinking it is more the size of the quilt rather than the extra edge being narrow. It will take as much time to load it as to quilt it. Even though they get a set bottom fee for quilt size the time isn't worth it to them, IMHO. I would do any size quilt with out a second thought.

U could also base an exta border on the backing and remove it after quilting. I wouldn't worry about the small edge. Hope it works out for you.
peace

Being a longarm quilter for hire myself, I have added fabric to customers' backing several times to make the backing large enough to load on my frame and be able to clamp it without hitting the clamps when quilting. I like to butt strips of muslin against the backing fabric and zig zag the two together. Once the quilting is completed the muslin strips come off very easily.

For that small size you should be just fine. Maybe it's a message to yourself to branche into quilting on your machine. Good luck!

Heronfan, I am local (also outside of Troy, going towards Vermont) and I LA. If you are interested I can work with what you have, if you are willing to baste some extra fabric to top and bottom so I can attach to my leaders. Feel free to PM me if you are interested.

My LAQ just did one for me where I had only 2" all around a 54" square quilt. Since yours is so small, I would definitely ask if your LAQ is aware of the size, and if she still has limitations I would sew an extra 3" piece of fabric all around that could be trimmed after quilting.

That's my suggestion, too.

This is what I would do. Good luck.