How to finish your quilt top

So you’ve followed a pattern, taken a workshop or pieced random fabrics together and now you have a beautiful quilt top. Now what?

Many patterns just say “quilt as desired” and that’s not helpful if you don’t know what you desire.

The reason pattern writers usually leave the finishing choice to the make is because there are so many options. Your personal situation will determine what choice is best for you.

These are the most common options for turning a quilt top into a finished quilt.

Simple quilting with lines

The easiest and most economical way to turn a quilt top into a quilt is to do it yourself on your domestic machine with lines.

It sounds boring, but there are actually a lot of interesting options. Lines can be straight, wavy, diagonal, decorative or even spiral.

A walking foot will make this easier, but if you don’t have a walking foot, you can still do small projects.

Samples

This Green and Pink Twinkle Sampler has wavy vertical and horizontal lines. Wavy lines are a great choice for beginners because it’s hard to go wrong.

The inner section of the Dreams Come True quilt is quilted with straight diagonal lines that make a grid. A diagonal grid is a popular traditional choice.

This pink Making Memories quilt has a fun spiral quilting design. This stitching is one long line, like a record. Spiral quilting can be done on any size quilt, but on very large quilts it can be time consuming.

Check out these nine tips to getting started with simple quilting.

Simple quilting with lines is a great option for anyone who wants to do the quilting themselves quickly and easily.

Free motion quilting

Another great do-it-yourself option is free motion quilting.

This involves lowering the feed dogs on your machine and moving the quilt around manually to do the stitching.

If you haven’t tried free motion quilting, the best way to get started is to take a class. In-person is best so that you can get the most feedback, but if that’s not possible, an online class is good too.

Free motion quilting can be simple or very intricate, so you have a lot of chances for creativity.

Samples

The Feathers and Pinwheels quilt was a quilt I made specifically to practice free motion quilting feathers. By the end of it, I was pretty confident to stitch feathers in many different shapes.

No Flies in my Garden has free form flower quilting on the shoo fly blocks, loops in the chain and little spirals in the background. The dense quilting looks great, but it does make the quilt a bit stiff.

There is a pretty big learning curve with free motion quilting, so be prepared to practice. Don’t attempt an intricate design on a large quilt as your first project. But once you’ve done a few projects, you will have confidence and skill.

Free motion quilting is a good choice for adventurous quilters who are willing to practice and try new things. Each quilt is a unique challenge.

Hand quilting

There was a time when the quilt police insisted that hand quilting was the only acceptable way of finishing a top. For the most part, those days are gone, but hand quilting is still a great option.

Hand quilting involves using a frame or a hoop to hold the layers while you stitch them together.

Back in the day, quilters all wanted tiny stitches (and would measure stitches to the inch to get the “right” size). But now modern options like large-stitch quilting are also popular.

Many people find hand quilting relaxing and enjoy the repetitive motion. It can also be a social activity. Quilting bees are still fun events.

Sample

The Signs of Spring wall hanging is hand quilted with a grid in the centre section and curves on the pinwheels.

It takes a little practice to get the hang of hand quilting, but it is very rewarding.

Hand quilting is a good choice for people who enjoy hand stitching and taking their time to finish a project.

Tying

Tying is another traditional finishing technique. It is sometimes judged as second class, but it can be a great way to finish a quilt.

This method involves putting the layers together with knots of yarn or machine tacking stitches.

Often a high-loft polyester batting is used so these quilts are more puffy and squishy than other quilts.

Samples

The Green nine patch sampler quilt is tied with knots of green yarn.

The Teal Gradient nine patch quilt is tacked with machine stitched stars.

It is pretty quick and easy to tie a quilt, and gives a unique look.

Tying is a good option for someone who wants a puffier quilt or wants to finish their project quickly without machine quilting.

Get someone else to do it for you

If you don’t have the time, space or inclination to do it yourself, you can always get a “long-armer” to do the quilting for you.

There are many individuals and shops that offer this service. A long-arm machine is a big machine specially designed to quilt layers together.

Some offer overall designs that are stitched automatically and others offer intricate custom quilting. You can ask to see samples of their work to know what it will look like.

When you go to a long-armer, be sure that all expectations are clearly defined. You want to know exactly what quilting you will be getting, what the timeframe is and how much it’s going to cost.

Your long-armer will also have requirements like type and size of batting and backing to be used. They will also have suggestions for what quilt design will work best with your specific top.

This is a good choice for someone who has the budget to do it. Some people have a favourite long-armer and never quilt their own tops.

Whichever method you choose, you will get a great result that you can be proud of.

Remember, you don’t need to be tied to a single method. Each project will have it’s own situation, so you can try all of these techniques if you want!

Then you just need to add binding to your quilt, put on a label and you are done!