Blue Orchid Machine Quilting LLC                

What to think about before you drop off or send your quilt to us. 

 It helps to make sure your backing and batting are six inches larger than your quilt top.  Please square up your back.  That just means cut off all raw edges and make it as straight as possible.

 Batting-Do you want to send or bring us batting?  If so please send the packaging along.  This gives us important information on type and how close to quilt.  Please send good quality batting.  You spent many hours working on a beautiful top, you don't want it ruined by using a cheap batting.  I do carry quality batting and the prices are reasonable. 

Hobbs 80% cotton 20% poly, 108 inches wide, Black,

$8.00 a yard

Warm and Natural 120 inches wide, $10.00 a yard

Warm and Natural 90 inches, $8.00 a yard

Warm and White 90 inches, $8.00 a yard

 Color of thread-I carry many varities of veriegated thread (King Tut) and plain threads (Superior).  I will do my best to match up the colors of your quilt.  My philosophy is to make your beautiful top stand out and not the quilting.  The quilting should enhance the top not dominate it.  There are a few exceptions to the rule and if I feel your quilt top is an exception, I will discuss it with you first.

 Pattern-You will want to think about how is this quilt going to be used.  Wallhangings you will want more quilting so the batting and the fabric don't start to settle.  Creating lumps and sags.  Bed quilts you will want medium amount of quilting for strength.  Cuddle up quilts require less quilting for softness but enough that it won't fall apart. 

 Edge to edge patterns will be less expensive.  A pattern in each block will take more time to quilt in turn will cost more. 

 What kind of pattern do you want on your quilt? For example, do you want flowers, feathers, is this quilt for a man or child, does the quilt owner have a hobby, what pattern will fit with the theme of your top.  I have hundreds of patterns to choose from or we can alway design a pattern for you.  I'm sure we can come up with something you will love.

 If you want something very special and original, my sister, Caren and I can create a pattern for your quilt.  There will be an hourly rate for the time it takes to digitalize the pattern. You can bring your drawing or idea to us and we will digitalize the pattern to fit your quiilt.  We will be happy to give you an estimate.  The digitalized pattern will stay in our collection for future use.

How to add borders onto your quilt?

 Measure your quilt in six different locations, three vertical and three horizontal.  First measure the middle of your quilt, vertically, from edge to edge.  Then split the difference between the middle and the end of the quilt and measure edge to edge.  Repeat the process on the other side of the middle line.  In a perfect world, all three of those measurements should be the same.  In the real world, most likely they will be different.  So split the difference of the measurements, for example, if two of the measurements came out 84 inches and one was 82 inches, cut your border fabric 83 inches.  Pin your border on your quilt and ease the quilt to fit your border.  Then sew the borders to the quilt.  Repeat the process for the top and bottom of the quilt. 

 You want to put the side borders on first and the top and bottom on second for strength.  If a quilt will be hung on a wall, it will be stronger to have one piece of fabric instead of three.  Same with a bed quilt, people will be pulling the quilt up from the top.  Besides, the sides are usually longer than the top and it's easier to quilt shorter strips.

 The reason for the measuring the quilt so much is because if you cut a piece of border fabric and start sewing from one end of the quilt to the other, you will end up with longer borders and not a squared quilt.  Fabric stretchs as you sew on the border, causing floppy and puckering on the outside edges of your finished quilt top. This causes me to ease the border edges in with little seams. Your quilt should look as pretty as possible.

One of Caren's new pattern.