How To Make a Minky Quilt Part 4 - Cutting & Trimming

How to trim before quilting. 
Meet your new best friend - the vacuum cleaner hose. There is no way around it, you have to vacuum often. I don't use any attachment, just the hose to get the best suction.  

Cutting with scissors creates an uneven edge and will result in more shedding.  Using a sharp rotary blade is the best option.  Rotary trim about 20 inches at a time.  Trim all the excess batting and minky about 1/2" from the edge. 

Cut that 20 inch strip of excess minky & batting that is hanging with a pair of scissors.  Put it quickly in a handy trash can - and then VACUUM the side of the quilt and the mat.  The goal here is to minimize how much fluff gets over the quilt & you. Repeat this sequence for all four sides of your quilt. Short cut & vacuum ... short cut & vacuum.  
On each short cut & vacuum - pick up the quilt and vacuum underneath it to get fibers left on your cutting mat.

 To remove any stubborn minky on your mat after you have trimmed the quilt sandwich - the green scrubbing side of a dry clean kitchen sponge works well.  It really sounds worse than it is - yes, there is fluff but it's not horrible. The end result is totally worth it ... just vacuum as you go.

Why trim?  Well, it minimizes large areas of sticky sprayed batting getting in your way when you quilt. It also keeps edges tidy and tight. 

All posts are linked at the top of the blog under "How To Make a Minky Quilt" or scroll down to read Part 5 - How to Quilt on Minky.