squaring the quilt top

[Pamela O.]

how do you square the quilt top before applying the batting and backing

[Margo C.]

Actually, you should be checking for square every step of the process. The most likely place to get out of square is adding borders. In order for the quilt to end up square you should measure the length to cut your borders across the center of the quilt (both length and width) and not along the sides, which are likely to have stretched during construction. You should never just sew a length of border to the side of a quilt and cut off the excess.

If your borders are the lengths they need to be, and your quilt is still not square, you might need to wet the top and block it flat and square before you make your quilt sandwich for quilting.

If you are talking about just cutting a small wall quilt to square, you might be interested in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-3RIWhBvcA




Hope that answers your question.

[Betty J.]

In addition to the great advice Margo and Sharon Schamber gives, which is spot on, I do a lot of measuring and marking the edge with a plain pencil and often will just leave the marks on without cutting it square so I know how best to quilt it, and then I wash the quilt and block it square with the marks, taping it flat and square to the table or floor with blue painter's tape in a kind of net like fashion (to make sure it lies flat as well as is square). After it dries I cut it carefully and then bind it and again check for square, steam blocking it if there is any problem.

[Paula D.]

Thanks, Margo, for the reference to Sharon Schamber's video. And speaking of Sharon, does anyone know what's happened to her and her web site? There's been no activity in months, and no response to inquiries. Yet I see she is out there teaching. Just wondering if anyone has any info.

[Lorna B.]

I think many of us received an email apologizing that their website had crashed and they were trying to recover the data. I know they had worked hard setting up their new website so I hate that this happened to them. I miss the good info on her site and hope they are back up soon.

Lorna
sunny, warm San Antonio, Texas