Floating Your Top



I float a top when I am putting it on my longarm to quilt it.  This means that I only roll the backing fabric onto the rollers.

I stitch a horizontal line to hold the wadding to the quilt back, using the horizontal channel lock.

I then line up the first internal border with the front edge of the foot,  horizontal locks on, and pin, every 2" the top to the wadding and backing making sure the border stays straight.

I use my mother's dressmaking ruler to mark where the edges of the quilt top need to be kept. This mark is determined by the smallest measurement across the width/length of the quilt. The top needs to be eased in to this smallest measurement so that it sits flat.



I have quilters clips that I clip to my quilt top roller so that I can give myself a visual reference of where the sides of the quilt, sashing strips in the centre of the quilt, need to be to keep the quilt square







I use lightweight clamps on both sides of the quilt to hold the backing fabric and wadding tight behind the top. A longarmer needa about 3-4" of extra fabric at the sides so the machine does not hit these clips when stitching close to the edge of a quilt. They are held up off the quilt by the rod you can see, but if the machine nudges one it will put a wobble in the stitching.