Quilting the Layers

Use plastic shelf liner rolls to trace your quilting  patterns on and then cut them out.You can stick them onto your quilt and then quilt around them by hand or with the machine.

They can be reused many times just don't leave them on the quilt for too long in case they leave a sticky glue behind.

use your dining table/pool table to pin quilts, if you need a larger area get a large piece of MDF or ply or even cardboard to sit on top. this protects your table from pins and if cut larger than the table, will give you a larger area to work on.

If you have a dining room set with table pads, turn the pads felt side up. Your quilt back will "stick" to the felt . As a bonus you will also have a center line and the side edges of the table for accurate measuring. If you need to you can also put pins in the side edge of the pad, but I have not needed to. If you are a beginner: put the quilt back down first, wrong side up, then the batting and last the top, right side up. It is very easy to use safety pins for basting without ruining anything!

For those of you who have my problem of not enough space to lay out a big quilt and sandwich the layers together combined with a bad back and being unable to get down on the floor for a long time, I utilize the community room at my local library. They have many tables that I push together and I can lay all of my quilt layers on the top of the tables and pin it all together. The use of the room is free in my city as long as I request it when it is not in use. I have saved my back doing this and I am more willing to tackle bigger quilts now knowing I have someplace to go to lay it out. There are other organizations that have community rooms that may allow one to use it for this purpose.

When quilting by hand, remember to make sure the needle goes through all three layers: front, batting, and the back. This seems like a simple task, but often times quilters are so focused on using tiny, even stitches they neglect this basic necessity. Also remember to "bury" your knots. On a quilt, all knots should be buried in the batting lair. The knot should be made approximately one half inch away from the tip of the thread and pulled through the top or bottom layer using a swift tug.

The actual quilting process can result in a variety of methods. Before you determine your quilting pattern, you should take into account your batting. Cotton batting requires closer stitching than polyester stitching. The most popular method of quilting the layers is quilting "in the ditch," meaning the stitch is a quarter inch away from the seam. If you are more ambitious, you can create a pattern while stitching. Many popular methods of quilting, including making a Hawaiian quilt use this method.

Machine quilting can take less time than hand quilting and the quilting is usually sturdier. The choice of batting is not as important when you elect to machine quilt, since the sewing machine's needle can go through thicker batting. However, you should make sure the needle is sharp enough to go through all three layers. Schmetz quilting needles are an excellent option for machine quilting. Since these needles come in two sizes, the 75/11 should be used for thinner batting and the 90/14 should be used for thicker battings.