profannie

I'm making a wall hanging quilt for a customer; it's the Splash quilt from Jaybird quilt. Here's a pic of the finished top. My customer wants a very detailed quilting. I will use my longarm. However, I don't know how to deal with the special border of this quilt. Usually, I don't bother that much about shifting; I simply add about 2 inches all around and then square the quilt. But I can't do that with this one. Is there a way to minimize the shifting? Should I add another row on the side? Should I quilt it with my DSM? I'm still a beginner on my longarm (got it 2 years ago), so any advice from more experimented quilter will be most welcome!
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Tartan

I don't have a longarm but I would take about 6 inch? strips of scrap material and pin it all along the crooked edge. I would then use a big stitch to temporarily attach it the the quilt edge. I would trim off the extra on the back of the hexagons and then load it.

btiny36

This is a great questions as I will be at some point be quilting this quilt on my longarm and I hadn't even thought about this... I had just thought about spray basting it....I don't attach my quilt top I just float them...once I have the top part of the quilt stitched to the batting and backing, I usually just stitch down each side with a bigger stitch to stabilize it....

dunster

Because of the bias edges and the lack of straight sides, this piece is going to want to shift around unless it is basted through all 3 layers. Since it doesn't appear to be very large, I would probably hand baste pretty heavily (with thread) before putting it on the longarm. I don't have any experience with spray basting, so I can't say that it wouldn't work just as well, but I would prefer to have all 3 layers firmly attached to one another before doing any intricate stitching.

DogHouseMom

Haven't done this, and I'm not an "experienced" long armer but ... I might consider floating the top and the batting. Then I would machine baste across the quilt and to edges - one "row" at a time, working your way down the quilt, and making sure to at least "tack" the outside corners.

The reason I would baste across the quilt it to retain the integrity of the center. If you only basted down the sides you could wind up with the center shifting.

profannie

It is not very large, only 36 inches X 60 inches. How would you baste the three layer before putting it on the frame? I never done it. I understand how I could load my backing, baste the top and batting together and then float it like DogHouseMom suggest. But can you put a sandwich on a frame?

dunster

Yes, you can load a quilt sandwich on a frame. I would lay the sandwich out on a table and sew together with needle and thread. If you have water soluble thread you could use that so you wouldn't have to remove that thread as you quilt. Be sure to leave enough backing to be loaded onto the poles of the longarm.

quiltingshorttimer

Dunster has the right idea--or do as suggested and baste a straight edge onto the sides. Then you would treat it like you would a scalloped edge border on the long arm. Did the pattern have you cut it so sides were all those bias shapes? makes it more challenging to long arm.

AliKat

I would definitely use starch or best press and press the top. Not iron. Then would pin as necessary with my LA pins and do all the edge basting before beginning doing any quilting on it.
Spray basting would work, but I can't use it.

vivsqt

I would most likely put this on my longarm by turning the quilt and put the side of the quilt towards the back bar. Then you know how wide your quilt is supposed to lay. Pin baste the hexi points down and machine baste them down along with the sides of the quilt. Then when you get to the bottom of the quilt (the other hexi side) pin baste, then machine baste before finishing the last row or two.