10 Tips for Finishing Your Quilts Faster

If you’re like me, the basting, quilting, and binding processes are steps you have to get through – but not necessarily ones you love. And because of that, I'm always looking for ways to make the finishing faster, so I can enjoy my finished quilts sooner!

These tips work especially well if you're in a hurry to finish a quilt for a holiday or special occasion.

Watch the video below or keep reading for all my best tips!

To me, there’s four steps to the finishing process: choosing backing, basting your quilt, quilting it, and binding it. So I have tips for all parts of the process!

Choosing Backing

Making a quilt backing, especially if your quilt is larger, can be very time consuming. There are a few options to speed up the process, though. The benefit of both of these backings is that there’s no piecing required, which means you can choose large or directional designs and not have to worry about lining up the motifs when piecing.

Choose Wide Back Backing: Most fabric is sold at 42” width of fabric on a bolt. But wide backings are actually 108” wide, which means you generally don’t have to piece them together. This is really handy if your quilts are larger. If your quilts are smaller, this isn’t always the most economical approach, but you could also use it for multiple quilts or smaller projects, too! 

Shop Wide Back Backing fabric here.

Use a Flannel Sheet Set: Flannel sheets can be found fairly cheap at stores, especially if you’re watching for sales. Not only are they made to be bed size, so they don't need any piecing, but they’re so easy to wash before you baste the quilt because the edges are finished. (No worrying about fraying edges or shrinking like other flannels.)

Shop Flannel Sheet Sets here.

Special Note: Although it's perfectly fine to use flannel sheets as quilt backing, you should avoid using cotton sheet sets. The thread count in cotton sheets is much higher than in quilting cotton, so when you quilt through it, your needle pierces the thread in the sheet, which can cause small holes or tears in your backing.

Basting Your Quilt

Choose Fusible: Consider fusible batting or fusible fleece products instead of basting. Essentially, you lay out all your layers and use an iron to fuse the layers together. I’ve used this method on smaller projects like home decor or small table toppers, because it’s easier to control the layers to prevent wrinkles.

Swap Pins for Spray: For basting, you can spray baste your quilts instead of using pins. I’ve only spray basted a few times in my life and it wasn’t the method for me, so I stick to using pins. But I know many people who swear by spray basting, so it’s worth giving it a try to see how you like it!

Shop Spray Baste here.

Quilting Your Quilt

Space Your Quilting Out: When machine quilting, quilt as far apart as possible for your batting (check your batting packaging – most are 4”-6” apart, although some polyester battings are up to 8”). If you have more time, you can always go in to add denser quilting. But starting as far apart as possible means you can get it quilted with the least amount of quilting time.

Tying On the Go: You can also consider tying your quilts or doing a combination of basic stitching and ties. Now, tying your quilts isn’t always faster, but it can be done by hand and without any sewing machine, which means you can do it on the go or while doing other things, so it helps maximize your time!

Keep It Easy: This one is obvious, but we sometimes get into ruts with our quilting and forget there's a wide variety of designs available to use! If you’re in a rush to finish a quilt, choose an easy quilting design. If you’re quilting it on your home sewing machine, try stitch in the ditch, simple straight lines, wavy lines, or the serpentine stitch. If you’re on a longarm, consider basic meanders or large swirls. Basically, any design that takes less marking and maneuvering of the quilt is great!

See my video tutorial for how to quilt easy wavy lines.

Binding Your Quilt

Buy premade binding: You can find premade binding for common quilt sizes on Etsy! They’re already cut and pressed, so all you need to do is sew! They’re usually made in basic fabrics like stripes and solids, so you can find something to match any quilt! If you dislike making binding, just stock up on premade binding, so you can hit the ground running as soon as your quilt is quilted!

Machine Stitch the Binding: I machine stitch my binding to the front and then hand sew the binding to the back, but the hand sewing process can take extra time. So, if you’re in a rush, try machine stitching your binding to the front AND back.

Glue It In a Pinch: If the quilt is more decorative, such as a table topper or wall quilt, you can use fabric glue to attach the binding to the back side of the quilt. This is obviously not a technique for a quilt that will be used and washed often or for one you’d enter into a quilt show, but it does the trick of holding the binding in place!

If you have other fast finishing tips, make sure you share them in the comments!