Originally Posted by
Stitchnripper
All of my sandwich problems have been eliminated so far with washable glue basting. I use a table and can start in the middle if the quilt is big... I drizzle a thin line in in a kind of grid on the cotton batting half at a time and smooth the backing over it - it's easy to reposition if necessary. Then do the other half....
This is almost exactly how I do it, and I highly recommend it! I haven't had a single pucker since I started doing this, and my back and knees thank me!
I buy Elmer's washable school glue by the gallon jug and I have some squeeze bottles I fill up from there - they are easier to squeeze than a small-sized Elmer's bottle you'd buy at the store and hold more. I hold the bottle up high and drizzle the glue on in big loop-de-loops. If I see a big gob of glue (usually right at the start) I just use my fingers to spread it out a bit.
Elmer's dries very well, it turns into a sort of crispy film that sewing machines have zero trouble sewing through. I've sewn through Elmer's with machines of all ages and types - never had one bog down (not even a Featherweight) and never had a needle get gummy. Once the glue is dry there's no chance of it being gummy unless you get it wet again.
Love it. I will never crawl on the floor to baste a quilt again!