Backing fabric is the large pieced or solid piece of fabric on the back of a quilt. For longarm quilting, it is loaded onto a quilting frame first and should be approximately 12″ larger than the quilt top’s width and height. Longarm quilt manufacturers will have more information on suggested quilt backing sizes.

Basting, as it relates to quilting, is the process of temporarily holding three layers of fabric together in preparation for quilting. Basting can be done by hand sewing, machine sewing, safety pins, spray glue, or more.  When using any form of stitching to baste a quilt, the stitch length is generally at least 1/2″ long or longer. When basting using safety pins or other pins, the pins are generally 4-6″ apart over the entire area of the quilt.

Borders are defined as strip, or series of strips, of fabric that serves as the frame to a quilt and is sewn to the outside area of the quilt but inside of the binding.

Borders can be wide or narrow depending on your project. Borders may also be pieced, feature applique, or simply used as a design element to grow the size of a quilt.

Border to Border, b2b, B2B, designs are created to connect seamlessly with itself and generally fit within a rectangular border shape. The border is the area of fabric that creates a frame around the center of the quilt.

Border to Border designs can often be used in the sashing blocks that connect the body of the quilt. Some design cropping may be required.

Bundles are smaller groups of designs, usually around 10-pieces or less, sold together at a discounted price.

Collections are a group of related designs that are derivative from coordinating line work or artwork. Collections may also refer to a group of designs created by a single designer or company.

Corners in digital design at Quiltable are defined as designs that fill a corner space and allow a border design to wrap around the quilt’s corner area. Corners often have a suggested complimentary border design to which it connects seamlessly.

Cornerstones in quilting are often the smaller squares sewn into intersections of quilt sashing. The cornerstones can range in size greatly, but generally do not exceed the size of the main quilt block. For digital designs at Quiltable, cornerstone designs are simple, contain minimal lines, and are quick-stitch designs.

Design cropping is referenced in digital quilting when a design is brought into the robotic system software and a portion of the design is purposefully cut off to fit within a space. The method for cropping a design will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Design cropping is very useful when filling in smaller spaces, like sashing, borders, or pieced shapes on the quilt top.

Digital Quilting Designs are designs used to drive a computerized robotic quilting system. File extensions for digital quilting designs vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Edge-to-Edge designs are referred to as e2e, E2E, Edge-to-Edge or Edge to Edge designs. These are any design that connect seamlessly to itself to allow a continuous line of stitching over the entire quilt.

The designs are created to literally travel from one edge of the quilt to the other.

In many cases, Edge-to-Edge designs nest so when the project is finished, there is not an obvious “row” of stitching.

Edge-to-Edge designs can be cropped and fit within the body of a quilt (within the borders) and do not have to be used specifically from an edge to an edge.

Half-Square Triangle (HST) is a 90-degree triangle formed when a square is cut in half one time diagonally. For the purpose of digital quilting, HSTs are simply triangles.

Longarm Quilting refers to using a large sewing machine to finish a quilt. Sewing the three layers of a quilt, backing, batting and top together is regarded as the quilting step.

Longarm refers to a sewing machine that whose throat space is larger than 15″.  The larger machine is generally on a frame and moves along the frame to baste or finish a quilt. Longarm Quilting can be computerized or hand-guided.  A longarm sewing machine can also be fixed to a table an used as a stationary machine.

For comparison:

Midarm  refers to the size of the throat space of the machine. Mid-arm quilting machines can range from 9-15″ and can be on a frame or stationary.

Shortarm refers to the size of the throat space of the sewing machine less than 9″. Shortarm machines are often domestic home-sewing machines that serve many other functions than finishing quilts.

Machine quilting is defined as using a sewing machine to stitch through at least three layers to create quilt. The typical layers are quilt backing, quilt batting/wadding, and quilt top. Machine quilting can be hand-guided, free-motion, walking foot, ruler-based, computerized, and many more.

Motif, as it is used on Quiltable, is defined as a recognizable shape. A Flower, an elephant, a bug, etc would all be motifs. These motifs can then fit into any type of digital design: blocks, edge-to-edge, border-to-border, and more.

Nesting designs are digital designs, often edge-to-edge, that are intended to position into each other. A second row of the design will appear to stitch upwards, higher than the previous row’s lowest point in order to create an all-over look.

Nesting designs do not generally overlap, but it is possible.

A Quilt Sandwich is the term often used to refer to three layers of a quilt: backing, batting, and quilt top.

A set is a large group of designs sold together at a discount. Club members enjoy monthly sets. Customers, who are not in a club, can also easily buy sets.

Stationary Quilting Machines are any machine not on a frame that are used to finish quilts. Stationary machines vary from a domestic home sewing machine to a stationary longarm. The prices range greatly on stationary sewing machine. When quilting, the basted fabric layers, (backing, batting, and quilt top) move under the needle, while the machine is still in or on table.

Stitch in the Ditch (SID or SITD) is when the quilting lines stitch along the seams in a quilt in order to define blocks or shapes.