Lazy Long-armer

Want to learn something, REALLY FAST!?!!!

Ok, from time to time, I can be a little bit lazy…. I mean, lazy in the best way! But still. Lazy.

I want to share one of the really cool ways that I can be lazy because as a long armer, it saves me a lot of time.

When I have several quilts that are in the same color-family, I find a neutral backing fabric that would work with all of the quilts. Then, preferably using a coupon, I buy an ENTIRE BOLT of 108″ fabric.

I take it home, and I load the entire bolt onto the front rail of my long arm.

Like this:

Then, I continue like you normally would when you load a quilt onto a long arm.

When I do this method of long arming, I put the LONG side of the quilt PARALLEL with the rails of the frame so that I waste as little backing and batting along the edges as possible. Another benefit of orienting quilts this way is that it keeps the back rail from getting too fluffy, too soon.

If I have wall hangings, table runners, baby quilts, or place-mats to quilt, I will lay them on the open batting/backing at the edges of the primary quilt, and quilt them as I work on the primary quilt. This is yet another way to minimize wasted batting, backing and time. (It is also a great way to empty bobbins that are loaded with the wrong color thread for your primary quilt.)

When you finish quilting your first quilt (unless its a king sized…) just roll the last of the quilt onto the back rail, like this:

And advance the quilt until you can barely see the batting of the first quilt, like this:

Lay out the batting and the top of your next quilt, like this:

This quilt is 3 blocks by 4 blocks. As you can see, when I do this method of long arming, I put the LONG side of the quilt PARALLEL with the rails of the frame so that I waste as little backing and batting along the edges as possible. Another benefit of orienting quilts this way is that it keeps the back rail from getting too fluffy, too soon.

If I have wall hangings, table runners, baby quilts, or place-mats to quilt, I will lay them on the open batting/backing at the edges of the primary quilt, and quilt them as I work on the primary quilt. This is yet another way to minimize wasted batting, backing and time. (It is also a great way to empty bobbins that are loaded with the wrong color thread for your primary quilt.)

After you have done 2 quilts, YOU MUST CUT THEM OFF THE FRAME.

Fold the excess batting over the finished quilt. Give yourself permission to waste a little bit of backing fabric on this step- the penalty for misjudging how much fabric you need is painful… And any leftover backing can get carved up for later use, using the methods found in ScrapStashtic Quilts, Organizing your Scrap Stash and ACTUALLY Using It.

Notch your scissors in the weave of the fabric just past the selvage, and use the “V” of the blades to tear the backing straight.

Unpin the finished quilts.

They will look like this:

Trim the quilts, one at a time.

Large batting scraps can be reused in smaller projects. Small batting scraps can go in the Schnitzel Bin (See ScrapStashtic Quilts, Organizing your Scrap Stash and ACTUALLY Using Itto be used as stuffing).

Fabric scraps get placed in your scrap bowl for later use as a focus fabric. (See ScrapStashtic Quilts, Organizing your Scrap Stash and ACTUALLY Using It for the next step)

Bind your quilts as you normally would.

Your long arm once again looks like this:

Repeat the Lazy Long Armer process until you run out of backing, or quilts that match your backing. Make sure you measure the backing when you start getting close to the end of the backing material. (I usually do my largest quilts first, and work my way smaller and smaller.)

I generally fit 3-5 quilts on a bolt of 108″ backing, depending on how large the quilts are. I have found that this method saves me a LOT of time. I use this method on my own quilts, batches of charity quilts, and occasionally customer quilts. If a customer brings me a pile of quilts and a bolt of backing, I offer them a discount to reflect the time I save by using this method.

Hopefully, this helps you in your sewing room!

Happy quilting!

Jan

PS. What is your favorite “lazy” trick in the sewing room? Join the Newsletter and get more cool tips like these!