Quilted Mat Sew Along - Tutorial 2 - Basting and Quilting

Your quilt top is done! You can check out Part 1 here. Now it's time to move on to the next step of the Sew Along which will be new to you if this is your first quilted project.

For this part, you will need:

• your finished quilt top
• batting
• backing fabric
• basting pins
• rotary cutter and ruler
• sewing machine and thread to quilt with (you might choose a particular colour)
• walking foot (optional)

First, we will baste the quilt. Basting is the process of making a 'sandwich' with the backing fabric, the batting and the quilt top.

I used a scrappy piece of batting, so the first thing I did was to trim up my batting using my quilt top as a guide. I left an extra half inch all around the side.

Now you need to sandwich your layers together. Lay your backing fabric right side down on your work surface. Make sure it is pressed and sits nice and flat. Lay your batting down over the top. The batting will stick to your backing fabric, so flip it over and smooth out the backing fabric, making sure there are no ripples or bubbles. Flip it back again and lay your quilt top over the top. Smooth it over with your hands.

Next you are going to baste the layers together with pins. The pins you need are like safety pins with a small curve in them, so they easily go in through the layers and back up to the surface.

 Place one or two pins per square, carefully placing them so they don't get in the way of where you plan to quilt. For this project I have quilted either side of each seam, so I have pinned right in the middle of each square.

Once your pins are in place you are ready to quilt!

Get your machine set up and set on a straight stitch. I like to quilt on a slightly longer stitch that I piece with. I piece using a 2.5-2.8 length stitch, and I quilt using about a 3.2 length stitch. If you have a walking foot, great, but if not, that is fine - I made my entire first quilt using my regular presser foot. You might get a few little pinches near seams, but don't worry.

I quilted straight lines down either side of every seam. I used my presser foot as the guide so I would achieve the same distance between the seam and stitching across the whole mat.

Once you've stitched your quilting lines, your mat will look like this:

Once you have finished, you can remove all your basting pins. The next part is to square off and neaten all your mat edges. Use a ruler and your rotary cutter and trim all the excess batting and backing fabric away from the edges.

 Now your mat is all pretty and quilted and ready for binding!

 Now show me some pics! I'd love to see your progress. Share on Instagram using the hashtag #matsewalong, post it on my facebook page or upload a pic in the Sew Delicious flickr group.

See you on Friday for the last part - the binding!

If you are participating you can grab this button!

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