TUTORIAL: Adding to Short Backing Without Unloading The Quilt
Well, I promised, so here it is. A tutorial on how to sew additional fabric to backing fabric while the quilt is still loaded on the frame. This is not faster than unloading, necessarily, but I do think it was easier. I liked that I didn't have to wrestle the weight of the half finished quilt while sewing the additional fabric onto the backing with a domestic sewing machine. Please note that I only use two of the rollers on my frame because I float my quilt tops.
Step 1. Realize the backing fabric is too short to finish the quilt.
You know you should have measured before loading, but you didn't. Now you are experiencing a bit of negative reinforcement. Bummer!
Step 2. Measure how short your backing really is. You will need to add this much backing fabric plus a minimum of 4" to allow for piecing and pinning. For my quilt, I need to add at least 15" more to the backing.
Step 3. Release the take-up roller and pull enough of the quilt off this roller to allow yourself to bring the bottom edge of the quilt backing to the top of the backing roller.
Step 4. Align the add-on backing to the edge of the backing roller leader. Place the right side of the add-on backing to the right side of the existing backing fabric. Pin through both backing pieces and backing leader.
This is the view from under the table after the add-on backing. The add-on piece has been pinned to the backing leader along one edge and is hanging free.
Step 5. Now you will need to bring the free-hanging add-on backing piece up against the existing backing and pin to hold it in place. Do this about 4" away from the edge pinned to the backing leader.
Step 6. Retighten the take-up roller and position sewing head along the left side of the quilt as close to the backing fabric leader edge as possible without risking sewing the leader. Make sure the add-on backing fabric is out of the way from the seam you are about to sew.
Step 7. Once you have your sewing head positioned, put the needle down into the fabric and use a channel lock (fancy push-button type or inexpensive clamp type) on one of the machine wheels. Your carriage should be able to move left to right, but the sewing head should not be able to move toward or away from you.
Step 8. Sew the seam across the quilt backing. It should be straight because you used the channel lock.
Step 9. Trim the new seam allowance, cutting backing fabric away from the backing roller.
Step 10. Remove all the pins on the backing leader to release the scraps of backing fabric from the backing roller.
Step 11. Re-pin the bottom edge of the add-on backing fabric to the backing leader. Retighten the take-up roller and press the new seam with a hot iron.
Step 12. Lay the batting and quilt top down against the wrong side of the backing fabric and finish as usual.
Step 13. Lesson learned... always measure your quilt backs in the future!
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