General Directions Page 1 QuiltSandwich

1) Cut a piece of backing fabric at least 2" more in length and in width than your quilt face. With wrong side of backing facing up, tape this backing fabric to a work surface.	2) On top of backing lay a piece of quilt batting, cut the same size as backing. I use low-loft batting for wallhangings.
3) Lay quilt face on top of batting, right side up, centering it on top of the batting and backing. Run your hands over quilt top, to smooth it out.	4) Pin-baste, through all layers, spacing safety pins about 2" - 3" apart. Start pinning from center of quilt and work to outside.
5) After pinning entire quilt top, remove the tape and take to machine to do the machine quilting. I always use a walking foot when machine quilting. On my New Home machine, I use a stitch length of 2.6, which is about 9 stitches to the inch. You can use transparent thread, rayon thread, metallic thread, regular sewing thread or even cotton thread in the needle. Use regular sewing thread in bobbin. Do not trim excess batting and backing, until after binding has been sewn on.
	6) After quilting is complete, remove safety pins. Make sure quilt is square. If it isn't, then draw a chalk line or a pencil line on quilt face, to make it square. You will then be placing the raw edge of binding against this line when sewing on the binding. Pin-baste or hand-baste around the edge of the quilt, within the ¼" seam allowance, to prevent the shifting of fabric, batting and backing, which could occur when applying binding. I have enhanced the pins in red - on the left and top of quilt and have enhanced the basting thread in white - on the right and bottom of quilt. Either method of basting will be successful.

The Quilt Sandwich