I had problems with tucks and it didn't seem to matter what the method was for sandwiching. I discovered......

It was my sewing machine. Even with a walking foot, I'd get tucks on the back. So.....

I now use a 1916 Singer 127 handcrank. ..... no tucks, beautiful stitches..... problem solved. And for FMQ, I use a Singer 1952 15-91.... drop the feed dogs, use the darning foot..... again, beautiful stitches, no problem. It was that $$$$ machine..... I just use that for mending now.

I've never used one because most of the comments I've seen about them were negative. I started out pinning, then moved to thread basting because I hated having to stop my quilting to remove a pin. I haven't seen anyone on this thread mention glue basting. It's what I use now exclusively. I LOVE it. No puckers, no gumming up my needle, quick and easy, cheap and washes out nicely. Just remember it has to be Elmer's Washable School Glue. I'll never go back to any other method.

Hate it. Quilting spray.

I found the QuilTak basting gun quick and easy compared to thread basting, but I was bothered by the holes it left, and it didn't seem to hold the layers together very tightly. I am about to try the Sharon Schambers thread basting method for my first attempt at machine quilting and am quite excited about it. It seems it should be so much easier without the quilt bottom clamped down, which was the thing that made the traditional thread basting method so difficult for me.

Have you considered Elmer's glue basting? I always had trouble with the over spray and finding a good place to do it. I will not do anything but Elmer's basting anymore.

I have and used a basting gun..,trick is to get a grill type panel...like is used for drop ceilings...slide under layered sandwich and shoot.....the spaces of that grill design is perfect to fit the tip of that gun...let's tabs go straight in......no prob

[QUOTE=ManiacQuilter2;6648870 . . . .

When you have the backing clipped or taped to a table, it should NOT be tight like a drum but if you slide your hand over the backing, the fabric should not shift. If the backing is to tight, your top will then be puffy. Are you using enough pins?? I always make sure that there is a pin every 4". That is why spray adhesive is so popular.[/QUOTE]

I "weight" the edges of the backing with curtain rods or yardsticks. I wrap some of the backing that is hanging over the edge of the table around a yard stick and pin it. It gives just enough weight/tension to the backing to keep if from wrinkling/rumpling.

I have used a basting gun to baste a small child-sized quilt (never a larger one, though). I put the backing, batting and the quilt top in my Q-Snap floor frame and basted with the gun. It really helped to have everything off the floor when trying to use it. I have the little grid thing they sell for the gun, and that's a very useless notion - :) - way too small and you have to keep moving it under the quilt. Talk about time-consuming!

I've never used the gun, but when I pin baste I tape down the backing pretty tight on the floor and I make sure to use A LOT of pins. I spread out my hand here and there and make sure I have a pin within hand distance. I just finished a quilt with 16 inch blocks. Each block I used 9 pins...

....handcrank for quilting? That has got to be tricky..........maybe when you were using the $$$ machine you were not guiding in sync with the feeding/ stitching, thus folds, tucks...and now with hand ranking I would imagine you have to go slower and therefore not causing folds, tucks....I don't know, just trying to picture it...