familyfun

I have a question.. I HATE to baste. I have tried several different methods.. spay, thread, pinning. I even tried Sharon Schamburgs method but am doing a king sized quilt and couldnt seem to find a area that worked for me. It kept rolling uneven.
Anyway I had a thought. I stretched the 3 layers on the floor and basted around the edges.
I was thinking if I put in my Joanns PVC frame and start at the middle, Do you think I could sucessfully thread baste that way?
I am going to be hand quilting this one and sometimes I like a hoop so it is easier to manuver.
Anyone ever tried to baste this way ?

DonnaC

You know, I have not tried doing it this way, but it certainly sounds like a fabulous idea! I don't see why it wouldn't work as long as you have the layers lined up correctly, and it sounds like you have that figured out already. I was also thinking that this might be a great way of using my quilt basting gun with the little plastic thingies. Guess we'll have to try it and report back!

Tartan

I have used safety pins all around the perimeter of a baby quilt sandwich and put it on my Q snap frame for quilting. I didn't bast at all but starting in the middle and worked out from the midde section with all the layers taut. This way I knew there were no winkles and I pressed down gently on the area I was working on to give it a little slack. I think you could needle and thread bast your king size quilt on your Q snap frame if you did it in consecutive taut sections.

mike'sgirl

Sure you could. That is why I bought mine, to baste quilts, and also to hand quilt them.

familyfun

Oh good.. I am glad to hear you all have tried it.
thank you..

DonnaC

Family Fun, may I just say how much I LOVE YOU for posting this question! I had never thought of this before but just had to try it.

This is a Clifford the Big Red Dog panel I was working on for a charity quilt. I took the panel, removed all of those nasty old quilting safety pins (LOL), and simply basted around the four edges of the quilt sandwich with my sewing machine. I then took the sandwich and laid it carefully over my Q-Snap floor frame, snapping on the two shorter edges and then the longer ones. (This takes a little maneuvering when working alone, but it's do-able.) I used my Dritz quilt basting gun to shoot the basting pieces into the quilt... it worked perfectly! The quilt stayed drum-tight in the frame. And the best part was no bending over or crawling around on the floor trying to baste. I can't wait to try this with a larger quilt!

In these photos, you can see the quilt in the frame, then the basting gun working its magic, and the underside of the quilt showing the plastic pieces poking through.

I learn amazing things on this Board every single day!!

G'ma Kay

I think this would work if you spray basted before you put it in the frame. I would think machine basting the edges would be asking for puckers at the edges after the middle was basted.

ArlaJo

I have never heard of the basting gun. How do you remove the "tacks" and can you quilt over them? I am confused.

DonnaC

ArlaJo, the basting gun uses tacks similar to the ones used at stores to hold the tags on clothing. They are kind of this shape: l---l

The tacks are made of plastic. To remove them, you just cut off one side, and the other side falls out. You just have to be careful not to use them on really lightweight fabrics, or they will definitely leave a mark or hole. Generally you can just press out the little marks they make, but it's always best to test first with the fabric you're using. Also, you can't quilt over them. I knew that this particular quilt was going to be straight-line quilted, so I just put them across in the areas I would not have to quilt over.


Maybe it will make more sense if you see what the whole thing looks like:

http://www.dritz.com/brands/showcase...?ITEM_NUM=3446

I tried to find a video but can't seem to locate one.

DOTTYMO

If using the basting gun you need the smallest tacks. I bought one with tacks and when I used it hated the end result. The tacks I found out later were too long and sandwich had plenty of movement. Mus try again with shorter tacks.