Love em, hate em? Those one piece backings that we think are so fabulous still need to be squared up before you load them onto the machine. And please don’t forget to wash them… the sizing on them can produce tension nightmares! So if you are taking customer quilts and get a wide backing…. inquire if it was washed and if it wasn’t either have the customer take it and wash and press it or you do it and charge them appropriately for it.
Squaring up your backing is so important for a fabulous finished product, especially if it is a wall hanging or you would like to enter it into a show! So this is how I piece those one piece backing…. note: i did not have a wide backing to demonstrate but this is how i do it with wide backings as well.
How do you square up those wide backings? Leave it in the comments
Squaring up your one piece backing!

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Thank you for the information about how to prepare a backing for quilting. I confess to not washing my backings and I square them up when the top size demands it but without the level of accuracy you describe. I also would not think to square up a wide backing only because I assumed the long arm quilter would just mount the fabric as is using the tension clips to address any unevenness. Great lesson. Again, thanks.
Hi Lisa. Nice video I spread my large backings on the living room floor and scissor cut to 10”more than my quilt size (usually 80-82) I measure & mark the size of the “scrap” & save it for a runner or two or borders or binding.
Then I take the reduced backing and square it up as you have shown in your video — a little less bulk to work with. Thanks for a good video.