Handy Information

How to prepare your quilt for quilting

A quilt usually consists of 3 layers – The quilt top, wadding/batting and backing fabric.

There are 2 main options for quilting your quilt, it can be done by a professional on a long arm quilting machine or you can do it yourself with your own sewing machine.

To prepare your quilt for a long arm quilter you should check with your quilter for their preferred method but usually you need to make sure your backing fabric and wadding is at least 4” bigger than the quilt top on all sides.

To prepare your quilt to do it yourself follow these steps –

  1. Make your Background fabric and wadding at least 2” bigger on all sides.
  2. Press the background fabric and quilt top.
  3. Check the back of the quilt top for any loose threads and fraying, especially if the threads are a dark colour, and trim them off.
  4. Ideally you need a flat surface at least as big as your quilt, for example a large table or floor, lay your background fabric on surface right side down. Smooth out flat and then use masking tape to hold corners and edges, stretching the fabric out taut as you go. (Stretching the fabric a little is important as it will reduce the risk of getting a pleat or crease in your quilt backing while you are quilting.)
  5. Centre the batting on top and smooth out from the centre towards the edges.
  6. Centre the quilt top on top, right side up and smooth out from the centre towards the edges.
  7. Use basting pins to hold your three layers together. Start in the centre of the quilt and space them approximately 4” apart.
  8. Or if it is going to take a while for you to quilt your quilt you could thread baste your layers together. This is basically a really long running stitch, stitches are about an inch long and can be done in a 4” grid pattern starting from the middle of your quilt.

How to add binding to your quilt

Binding is a strip of fabric that you put around the edge of a quilt to enclose the edges of the fabrics. It stops fraying and strengthens the edges of your quilt.

There are many ways to do bindings. You can do it completely with your sewing machine, which is good for items that will get a lot of use, or the most common method for quilts is to sew first with your machine and then finish by hand. This is the method I will take you through.

Prepare your binding

  1. To find out how much binding you need measure the outside edges of your quilt and allow a little extra for joining strips and finishing, about a 1/2m extra should be enough.
  2. Cut your binding strips, 2.5” x width of fabric (2.5” is my preferred width, some like to make them 2.25” wide, this is really personal preference. You’ll find your ideal width with time and experience.)
  3. Join your strips as per the diagram. Place fabrics right sides together, sew diagonally (solid line) and then trim ¼” from seam (dash line).
  4. Press seams open.
  5. Fold strip in half, wrong sides together matching long edges.
  6. Press.

Attaching the binding

  1. You will be sewing your binding to the front of your quilt with your sewing machine, using your walking foot.
  2. I usually start my binding on the bottom edge of the quilt.
  3. Line up the raw edges of the binding with the raw edge of your quilt, Leaving a tail about 10” long, stitch with a generous ¼” seam allowance.
  4. When you get to the corner (see diagram) stop stitching about ¼” from the end, with needle down, lift foot and rotate quilt and stitch to the edge.
  5. If you are not familiar with this technique it is easer to cut your thread so you can move the quilt away from the needle a bit to make manipulating the binding easier.
  6. Fold your binding strip up at a 45’ angle, then fold it back down to line the edges up with the next edge of the quilt.
  7. Continue sewing from the edge of the quilt.

Joining the binding ends

  1. When you are getting towards the end of sewing your binding on, stop leaving a good 10” space from where you started.
  2. Over lap your binding tails and trim so the overlap measures 2.5” (or the width of your binding).
  3. Join ends in the same way we joined the strips at the beginning, butting the ends together.
  4. Check that it folds out properly before trimming seam allowance.
  5. Finish sewing the binding to the quilt.


The final step is to hand sew the binding to the back of your quilt.

  1. Fold the binding strip over to the back of your quilt. I use binding clips to hold it in place, space your clips about 3” apart and move them along as you stitch up to them.
  2. I prefer to use 2 strands of thread and hand sew an invisible slip stitch, with approx. 3mm stitch length to attach the binding.


Don’t forget to label your quilt!