border or main quilt first

[Bekah]

I have a quilt on now, only have 1 inch, if that, on the sides, so am not going to be able to turn this quilt. the customer wants the middle done with CL Swirls and a different border. question, should I quilt the border down first or do the middle and then come back for the borders. oh, and I get the pleasure of using the packaged batting from h---, the puffy teary stuff that looks like cotton candy. I tried to talk her out of it but she says she and her "other longarmer" have used it for years with no problems.

I just needed to whine and ask your expert advice.

thanks in advance

[JoleneK]

Bekah,

I would quilt the center first and them move onto the borders. You could pin some muslin to the sides to give you a little more room while quilting the borders. Good luck

[BethDurand]

I'm with Jolene. Sorry about the batting. I've had some of that nastiness too.

[Bekah]

thanks Beth and Jolene. That was my first thought too but figured I better check with the experts first. Do you think if I pin the beejeeses out of the sides I will hav enough backing? that is really the part that scares me. I have the material leaders like Sharon Schamber that I use on every quilt and they are quite wide so I think I will be okay there but am afraid the backing will shrink does that make sense?

[BethDurand]

Yes, I vote for pinning the beejeezus out of the sides so that they aren't able to move. I'm sure you'll be fine, but will be fretting about this the whole time. Let us know how it turns out.

[quiltmonkey]

I agree with Beth. I do middle first and while I am doing this, I also pin the side borders so they don't shift. Then I can roll back and quilt the borders at the end. I also don't stitch down the side (edges) until the very last step (unless I am doing an e2e panto).