Whole quilt basted with Elmer's school glue
 

In the past I basted smaller pieces with Elmes's school glue and it was great. Tonight I basted the entire 80x60 quilt with it. Everything went smoothly (knock on wood) and I am going to leave it to dry overnight. It will be ready for quilting tomorrow. I hope it holds well. I will post my results. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Good luck!

I so hope it works out for you. I taught small children for 23 years and I can't get over the trauma of glue messes.

fingers xxxxxxxx hope it works well

when you basted your quilt, did you use a hot iron? saw in the store last night they are now making Elmer's clear school glue, gonna buy it next time I out.

Can't wait for the update!

I have checked on my quilt and the sandwich pieces are stuck to each other pretty good. I am impressed. I noticed one thing though, it is better to make thin lines with the glue rather than dots since the quilt is heavy and it will be handled more than a small piece. If you squeeze the bottle and move fast the glue comes out in a really fine line. I will start quilting tonight when kids are in bed and there is nobody that needs me LOL.

Good luck!! Keep us updated. This would sure save knees and fingers.

Can't wait for the update. Love to try something new.

I have done this with lap size quilts, just finished one last week. They quilt up just fine and I have not had a problem, but I do iron my some to set the glue. What I do is lay out the batting, put the backing over it right side up, then I roll or fold the backing so I have a strip going across one end. I put the glue on backing then unroll that part and smooth it out, do the next section showing and unroll and smooth, when all done I start in the middle and press it to set and make sure there are no wrinkles or puckers. The iron dries it great, then I flip it over and do the same with the top. Works great.

Thanks for my morning laugh! Too funny!

The sewing machine needle goes through the glue without any problem? It has to be the Elmer's washable school glue, right? Do you dilute it? What about a glue stick? Thanks.

It is Elmer's washable school glue and I used it straight from the botthe, no diluting. Needle goes through it with no problems. I have also used all sorts of Elmer's glue sticks but not on a large quilt because I feel they would not stand up to the amount of handling a large quilt requires when you have a domestic sweing machine. The glue stics worked great for me when I was doing qayg or smaller projects like table toppers and place mats.I have not tried it the glue sticks on anything bigger which does not mean they would not work. You would need a lot of glue sticks though.

Please update us after you've had a chance to sew on it tonight.

Im a zealous convert to using Elmers. I bought the clear glue and didnt like it. Too runny and made a big mess. Ill stick with the white stuff.

I willtry this idea. Thank you.

Wil it wash out successfully?

So far it washed out with no problems. I am a mom to two elementary school kids. They come home coated in Elmer's school glue, and I mean had to toe and it all washes out perfectly. Apparently, this type of glue is not really glue but starch.

I saw this on Pinterest and the thought crossed my mind that this might work rather than the quilt sprays that are out now - sure would be better for the lungs....what does everyone think....

How to Make Elmer's Glue Spray


Homemade glue spray made from ordinary school glue such as Elmer's Glue-All has a variety of uses including craft and building projects. It is also useful in building model cars and planes. Elmer's glue spray is extremely easy and inexpensive to make. Anywhere where a mild adhesive is needed, this glue spray glue will do the trick. Because Elmer's is water-soluble, cleanup is also quick and easy.

Instructions

1

Combine equal parts glue and water in the spray bottle. Shake until they are completely combined.
2

Add 2 to 5 drops of dish soap to the glue mixture.
3

Swirl the mixture gently with the tube from the the head of the bottle until the dish soap has been thoroughly mixed in.


Read more: How to Make Elmer's Glue Spray | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_6598712_make...#ixzz251ojNGgx

Wish I'd known about this sooner. I bought a whole bunch of 505 spray last time they were on sale at JoAnn.

Please note: The recipe for the Elmer's school glue spray is for Elmer's Glue-all. Quilters are using Elmer's School Glue. Will the Glue-all wash out?? Does the same recipe work for the school glue?? We don't want to ruin a treasured quilt by using the wrong thing or having a spray that does not hold. If you have tried the school glue spray, please let us know how it works.

Wow, I've never even heard of this before ... how long have you been using glue to baste ??
Is this a popular method now ?
Wonder if it will affect machines long-term, as it gets transferred from the needle into the bobbin & case areas etc ... ??

I am a big fan of glue basting. I have glue basted many smaller quilting projects, but not a big quilt. I have always glued then dry ironed the glue. It sounds like you may have not used an iron. Could you clarify for me? I'm really curious to know- it may be an alternative to the spray basting I do on big quilts!

This sounds neat!

When you iron to set the glue is the quilt still on the floor? Is it better to put the glue on the batting or the backing/pieced top?

I have done this twice with good results. I do the little skinny bead of glue randomly dripped. Stays together well.

I did this project on my oversized second hand melamine dining room table. Width of my quilt was the same as the length of my table (happy coincidence). I layed down batting first and than the quilt on top. I put row of pins through the middle just to split the quilt in two smaller pieces. I flipped the top over, all the way to the pins and applied glue on the batting in dots and thin lines, just randomly. I flipped the top back down and smoothed it with my hands. I did not use iron but I assume it wold be faster if I did. When the glue was dry, I repeated the same with the second half of the quilt. Instructions on the glue bottle say that it is fully dried in 24 hours, so I let I dry overnight and than repeated the same with the backing. Just as an experiment I used Elmer's Glue-All in one corner to see if it will wash out. I will be quilting it in a few hours so I will post how it is holding up.

this is not specifically about the whole quilt but the glue coming out...i've been using dots of the washable Elmer's for some time to match points and seams - and sometimes i like to press seams open afterward. A single spritz of water from my spray bottle on the glued spots and the seams open up - and there is no sign of residue.

PS....i have also heard the ratio of 1 part glue to 3 parts water (vs the 1:1 in an earlier post) for making a spray glue....but have not experiented with this yet....gluing the quilt sandwich had never occurred to me til i heard it here....but i'm trying it on my next one for sure !!

I am definitely subscribing to this thread to see how your quilt turns out! Good luck!

I would like to know how it works out.

Hope it goes well!

Will try with next quilt! Thanks for letting us know how it works!

I use the purple glue sticks for binding. That is safe to use. I am not sure about the white liquid washable glue.

I've been using School Glue (not just Elmer's) to baste quilts for a few years now, LOVE IT!!! Just remember if you let it set for any extended time you may get some yellowing where the glue is, but mine has washed out with NO permanent staining.

I'm anxious to hear the results of this experiment. I am assuming that you need to get the quilt quilted quickly and wash it?

Wow! We've come a long way from the days when I would crawl around on my knees pin basting :) Can't wait to try this - I've always avoided the sprays as they are toxic to my Cockatiels. I definitely will be trying this. Thanks for the info!

Guess who just spent an hour crawling around on the floor pin basting a quilt. Guess I should have read my quilting board stuff this morning instead of jumping into the sewing.

I'm really interested in hearing how it turns out.

Thanks for this tip. I'm going to bookmark it so that in a couple of days when I need it I can refresh my memory.

Please let us know how it worked for you. I tried it the other day on a small piece
and it looked like a mess so I gave up. I always use Elmer's on my binding but
basting a 20" square didn't work. I glued the backing to the batting, smooth out
and pressed. I got lots of puckers so I was afraid to carry on. Maybe I did
something wrong but it's back to thread basting for me.

I've never used an iron to "set" the glue or anything like that. I use a thin line of glue and then just MASH it when I lay the batting over the backing, let it set for a bit, then run thin lines of glue in perpendicular to the last glue lines, MASH the top onto the batting. Then just leave it to dry for an hour or so. Ironing is too much work for me!