Squaring Up Your Quilt

 

 

1.  To determine whether your backing fabric is square, fold it in half and line up your edges so they are even. If your folded edge does not look even and is wavy, your backing fabric is not square.

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2.  To square your backing fabric: With your fabric folded in half and your selvage edges together, shift your selvage edges to the left or right until the folded edge appears even and any waviness is gone.

 

3.  Lay your fabric onto your cutting board. Notice that your cut edges will not be even.

 

4.  Line your folded straight edge up with one of the lines on your cutting board and use your rotary cutter and ruler to cut the uneven edges of your backing piece. Your backing fabric will now be square.

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5.  If you have pieced two or more pieces of fabric together to create your quilt back, trim the edges even so there is no "stair step" where the pieces are sewn together. A quilt out of square may have fullness or waviness. **I cannot guarantee that I will be able to quilt that smoothly.** Should I encounter this with your quilt, I will contact you to discuss it. 

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To calculate square inches:

 

 

Measure the quilt top length & width.

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Multiply length by width.

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Example: 

74W  x  96L = 7,104 Square Inches