Maureen NJ

I made a quilt top a while ago. It is 102 x 120” for a tall king size bed. 120” goes across the width of the bed. I chose a print for the backing and joined three widths (no problem). Unfortunately, I did not lay it out and pull it on the bias to square it up (too big). Yesterday my husband and I folded it along the 120” side so I could take it to a longarmer and it was off about 3” from top to bottom. The Longarmer, who is new to me, is putting the backing on the roller on the 102” side. Will there be a problem with her getting the backing square or should I go and get the backing and bring it home and lay it out on the floor and square it up. Hope I made myself clear. I couldn’t slee[ATTACH=CONFIG]617133[/ATTACH]
p last night thinking about this. Any help/suggestions would be appreciated. Attached is a pic with the backing print on top. Quilt top is on bottom. Also pic of what I am trying to explain.
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Sewgood

Love the backing...love the quilt.
As a longarmer my advice would be take it to the quilter and ask her. Depending on how much wider your backing is than the top it may work out. I would let her decide before buying new backing.

Macybaby

If you have it cut with the weave, so that even though it appears angled, it's straight with the grain, I'd not worry about it.

I always go with grain as I rip when I'm doing backing. When I mount it on the frame, I use the rollers to help pull it into correct alignment. I'll pull and adjust as I roll the back on to the rollers, and then once it's all mounted and I can put a bit of tension on it, I'll roll it all back and forth a few times until it's laying nice.

Now, if you are saying that you have 120" on one side and 117 on the other - if you only removed selvages to seam it, I don't see how that could even happen.

Maureen NJ

Thanks sewgood. The longarmer said she’d get in touch with me if there was a problem. Thanks Cathy. Both sides are 120” and the selvages matched perfectly. I cut the fabric at the same repeat, prewashed, starched and pressed the 3 pieces of the backing. The pattern was printed perfectly across the grain. I am mad at myself for not laying each piece on the floor and pulling on the bias to get it square before I joined the selvages. I always do that but was rushing and the pieces were long and narrow (42” after prewashing by 102”) so I don’t know if that would have worked anyways. It was when we held up the seamed piece (102x 120”) that I noticed it was not squared and off by a few inches. Cathy, thanks for answering. It sounds like you would be able to adjust it if you were doing the quilting and what you said made sense. Hopefully, i’ll Sleep better tonight!

Rhonda K

Be sure to discuss with the LA person so they are aware of the problem. The fabric has a straight line through it. You will want that to line up close to a center line point at the top and bottom.

I always mark backings with center, top, and bottom reference points for the LA person. It helps to avoid mishaps on positions.

What does the backing look like if you fold in half on the 120 inch side? Match the selvage lines across. What do the side edges look like? Did you leave plenty of allowance and over size the backing?

The video gives an idea of what I'm trying to describe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcpzwJMVTbc

ETA: You have some good answers already. I forgot to hit "post" on my reply so it is late.

quiltingshorttimer

Maureen, just be sure to tell the long armer--if you have plenty of extra backing she can likely pin it on so that it works. She/he may also be able to spray it with water and roll the backing back and forth which can also help straighten it some.
The reason that the Long armer attached it with the 102 at the roller is that we always want the seams to be horizontal so it rolls evening.

tomb

I don'the see how your longarmer even accepted your quilt. Is she aware that the top and back are exactly the same size?
I always insist that the backing be 6" longer and 6" wider than the top to allow for pinning to the rollers and side clamps without interference while quilting. You can work with less if necessary and everything is perfectly square but when both are exactly the same it is impossible to load the quilt properly.

Maureen NJ

Thanks for the info. I feel better now about the whole thing.

Maureen NJ

The dimensions I gave were the quilt top. I just used those because I thought it was easier to explain. There is plenty of extra backing. Thanks for your input.

QuiltMom2

Please post a picture when the quilt is done. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to see the finished quilt!