So, for the first time, I had to center a backing on a quilt. (Thankfully, the quilt's small size made it a little easier to come up with a solution.) First, I marked the side center points of both the quilt top and the backing with a safety pin.
Once the backing and batting were loaded on the quilting frame, I used the pins to align the center points before anchoring the quilt top.
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| Safety pins centered on the sides allowed me to align the centers of the quilt top and the pieced backing. |
In order to keep a close eye on the alignment and make sure the layers didn't stretch and shift too much, I floated the entire quilt over the front of the frame. I stopped and anchored the backing only after quilting past the center point, so it could support the rest of the quilt for the last pass of the machine. I'm not sure if this is the "right" way to do it, but it worked for me. :)
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| "Floating" the Quilt is a term for laying it over the backing bar without securing the lower border to the frame. |
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| Quilting Completed! (Still needs binding...) |
Here's the lovely result. To quote Tina, she didn't want "anything traditional or curvy," and "not to perfect." No danger there!
Her pieced backing with its look of motion seemed well-suited to the backdrop of crazy wind we experienced all day today from Tropical Storm Debby.
Hmm. These jewels are so pretty, I might just have to swipe them...
