I just wanted to follow on from my quilting comments yesterday. When choosing the threads for your quilt, remember that the very dark colours like black,navy,dark green etc, because of the dyes involved, do not show very good stitch definition when quilted. It is better to pick a lighter colour, but one that will blend in with the colours in the actual quilt. My favourite colours are gold which looks wonderful on nearly any colour quilt and cream which is suitable for a lot of quilts.
Also, the type of material in your quilt can affect the way the quilting stitch looks. Any materials containing polyester or rayon will lose a lot of stitch definition. The best fabrics are 100% cotton for both the front and the back of your quilt.
When quilting your quilt any loose areas can often be shrunk by using an intense stitch pattern, but if the baggyness is huge, then there might be wrinkles or pleats around that area. Most quilters will do their best to even out these areas but sometimes a pucker is unavoidable.
With your backings, a lot of people use sheets. If you are doing this be aware that the thread count of the sheet is important. A low thread count can cause colours to show through from the front of the quilt, even through the wadding. Do not use sheets with any polyester content as this material will not stay as nice as the 100% cotton-content ones. Also, your quilter will need to use more needles to sew with polyester as it blunts the needles and causes burrs on the needles more often. Besides seeing the difference, I always know if there is any polyester in a quilt or backing as I can actually hear the needle "punching" throught the material when sewing.
Happy Quilting,
Jennine
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