wellphooey

I tried using Elmer's glue on a high loft poly batting in order to do cross-hatch quilting on a small baby quilt. Miserable results. The batting shifted every which way and I had a lot of folds on the backing. Finally had to completely unsew the quilting and am about to start over. I had drizzled the glue very sparingly, about 2 inches apart, from about 12 inches over the quilt, in a back-and-forth motion just I have always done when using W&N low loft which always worked very well. I'd sure like to hear from you if you have any hints on how to glue baste these high loft poly batts. Should I consider water soluble thread basting instead? (Don't like pinning if I can avoid it.)

Buckeye Rose

I have used glue to baste with poly with great success, although not with a high loft batting. You didn't say how you put your layers together, but I always spread the glue onto the batting, drizzling in thin lines like you. I always starch the top/backing heavily which helps a lot. I also use a walking foot when quilting any straight lines. My first thought is that you didn't use enough glue as a poly batting seems to do well with more. You might also reduce the pressure on the presser foot. Good Luck!

wellphooey

While re-starching and pressing just now, it occurred to me that I was probably not using the correct settings on my machine and that the pressure was way wrong. I was using a walking foot but didn't adjust the pressure for the high loft batting. ( When I was un-sewing I noticed that a lot of the stitching - top and bottom was ragged and uneven in many places.) I think you are right about the pressure. I'm going to do some test quilting today and see how it goes before re-quilting the baby quilt. Thanks for your comments!

ManiacQuilter2

I am curious to why you are using high loft batting?? I have cross hatch many of my quilts over the decades using Hobbs 80/20 which has what I would call a bit of fluff so my cross hatching shows up nicely. When quilting high loft batting, the batting is always going to want to shift and I doubt if you will get the result you want. I was under the impression that high loft polyester batting was used for quilts to be tied. SORRY !!!

wellphooey

You are probably right about the use of the high loft. I did not have a choice as this is a charity quilt and the materials were given to me to use. I did discover tho, that the batting, as given to me, was actually doubled so that it was really, really high! I have now separated it to the one thickness and I think this will work. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Prism99

If you glue baste this again, I would suggest getting a foam painter's brush or a small painter's roller, dip in water and squeeze out, then use this to spread the glue thinly all over the batting. You could still drizzle first, but I think spreading the glue out like this would make it more like spray basting with all 3 layers in continuous glued contact with each other. Theoretically, at least, this should make cross-hatching without shifting more feasible.

loisf

I'll bet that your culprit was the double layer of batting - the layers would slide because there was no glue between them. I think you will be happy with your next attempt. Good luck.

wellphooey

I think you are absolutely right about that! Makes total sense to me. So? If I decide in the future to layer the batting for extra thickness, would it be ok to glue the 2 layers together first, and then add the front and back?

wellphooey

I'm going to try this on a future non-charity quilt as I don't want to have to launder it before donating it. Thanks for your help!

wellphooey

Success! I removed the second layer of batting, spray basted with 505, and re-quilted in a cross-hatch pattern. No folds, looks super! I will try the foam brush and glue technique on one of my own next quilts. Don't want to do that on a charity quilt because I don't want to wash it before donating. Thanks for your help everyone!