With the quilt top finished, there were still decisions to be made and work to be done.

Of course, the backing had to be chosen. That was easy enough.

The batting can be a different issue. I showed Ellen quilts with various battings- Warm and Natural, Bamboo, Hobbs Poly-Down, etc. Ellen’s quilt top was sewn consistently enough that she could choose from any and get a great result. With some new quilters, I encourage a batting with some loft, as it has the propensity to absorb some of the lumps in a quilter’s early efforts. Also, a quilting pattern that minimizes the number of stitches and the tightness of the quilting pattern helps work in some of the inconsistencies.

Ellen liked a bit of loft and chose the Hobbs Poly-Down. She wanted a fairly modern looking quilt and choose an all over loop pattern for the quilting.

I think it’s important to give a new quilter the gratification of a finished project as quickly as possible. Ellen and I had scheduling issues, and it looked like it would take weeks to free up the time to teach her to quilt the quilt top and finish the binding, so we went to Plan B. I made time to quilt her quilt top on the long arm and finish it using the “Suzie’s Magic Binding” technique.

The link to “Suzie’s Magic Binding” is in the Tips Library. (Go to “Community,” select “Tips, References & Tools,” then “Library”– at the bottom right on your mobile device, at the top of the feed on the web.) Also, yardage requirements for this technique are included in the “Backing Yardage” reference in the same location.)

Live well, quilt well.

Lisa