luana

I am piecing a back for a quilt that will be sent to a long arm quilter. Is it best to run the seams horizontally (side to side), or vertically (top to bottom). I know I read a very informative post on the board, but can't seem to find it now. Thanks for any advice.

QuiltnNan

side to side is best so that when the quilt is rolled, the seam does not build up on itself and cause the quilt to roll crooked.

cathyvv

I've done both - haven't noticed any difference. But I only do edge to edge. Other types of quilting patterns might get different results.

valleyquiltermo

Quilting Nan is right, but I'm a LAQ, and I tried both. Yes side to side....

ube quilting

side to side or angled is best to reduce the bulk along the seam.
peace

mighty

Side to side is best but I have done mine both ways and it has not been a big problem.

JustAbitCrazy

I do longarming, and it usually doesn't matter, because whatever way the seam goes, I will load it so that the seam is horizontal, and work on the quilt sideways if need be. The only time that might be a problem is if the quilting is directional and the quilter will have a hard time creating the images while looking at them sideways, something which seldom happens, I'm sure. It's never happened to me yet. I often prefer to load a quilt sideways, because I have the table length, and that's just fewer times I have to roll to a new section.

JustAbitCrazy

Now that I think about it, the direction of the seam would be important if the quilter didn' t have a table/leaders long enough to accommodate the quilt sideways. It would also matter if the chosen pantograph pattern was directional and would look wrong quilted sideways. Paper pantograph patterns are unrolled along the length of the table. If the quilter uses a computer to create the quilting, and not a paper pattern, it wouldn't matter, because she could surely turn the image in the computer.

Bobbielinks

It really does not matter. What does matter is that the backing pieces be sewn so that the straight of the grain is running the same direction on each piece to afford puckers.

sewplease

Is it best to press the seam open or press to the side? Thanks!