Clip loose threads on the top of your quilt. The best time to do this is as you go. When you’re ironing your seams, especially when your assembling your quilt blocks into rows, clip any threads that are poking through your seams. 

Press your quilt top and backing. (This is another good time to check for loose threads.)

If you have any light fabric in your quilt top, look for and clip any dark or long threads on the back of the quilt top. These are sometimes visible through the quilt top after quilting.

If you have seams around the edges of your quilt top, sew about 1/8” around the entire perimeter (stay stitching). If you only have a few seams, like at the borders, there is no need to do this.

The backing must be at least 4” larger on all 4 sides. (Length + 8 x Width + 8)

Batting must be 3-4” larger on all 4 sides. (I can provide the batting if you prefer.)

If your top and/or backing are directional, pin a note to indicate the top. 

Borders

We get a lot of questions about borders which, if not done right, can result in significant waviness or fullness around the edge of your quilt. Sometimes we can manage this with extra work during the quilting process, but sometimes we cannot and we may contact you about whether you want to fix your borders before quilting. If your borders have a lot of waviness or fullness, this can result in puckering, pinches, or even require pleats to take in the extra fabric.

We recommend you always measure your quilt before you cut the borders, and pin your borders before you sew them. We only measure through the center. Because you’re measuring through the center, you will be squaring up your quilt - the left, center and right will all be the same measurement, etc. Here's a YouTube video with an excellent border tutorial that is very close to what we do. The only difference is that we use a measuring tape to measure and cut, rather than laying the border fabric on top of the quilt. (This is my favorite long measuring tape.)

You can also use this method for your row sashing. I like to measure all of my rows - if they're pretty close I'll pick the most common measurement and use that. If they all vary, I may take the average. Whatever I do, I use the recommendation on the linked video to put the fabric that is longer on the bottom when sewing. 

We recommend and encourage you to watch a variety of videos on YouTube about borders. You will learn a lot, and you may find a different method that you like better or that works better for you. 

Always feel free to ask us questions!