Iceblossom

Sounds like it will all work out ok. You are making a quilt for a baby that is going to get washed and gradually wear out, no problems with that. It should still last a couple of heavy use years even with a 6" quilt grid, but it isn't going to be passed down.

I typically use poly batts and spray baste and have very few problems. I did safety pins for years and would rather do just about anything else than that right now, even if I might put in just a couple when I'm first stabilizing my project with the quilting. That's what the quilting provides, is stabilization for the layers. The less stabilizing the more those layers shift and rub against each other. It just happens that some people can do marvelous things with their stabilizing! It is an art and a talent all its own and that I largely lack.

I do agree a walking foot is a good thing. But if you have $20 to spend and the choice is between spray baste, safety pins, or a foot -- I'd buy the spray baste myself.

Take lots of deep breaths and know we all started somewhere. You are making this with love, giving it with love, and it will be received with love. Even if it is slightly less than perfection, it is a beginning just like the new life. It's a wonderful thing and we hope you keep us posted on your project. Secretly?? we hope this is just the beginning of a life long hobby. One of us! One of us!

Quilt30

Also. If you use either walking foot or not, lengthen the stitches to about 3 or 3.5 (depending on your machine) to accommodate the extra thickness. The stitch length on your machine is set for two single layers of fabric. Lengthen accommodates the extra thickness.

bearisgray

If the quilting or tying is too far apart - the 'old -fashioned' polyester battings would sort of come apart and then the fibers would shift and then one would have clumps of fibers in some spots and "nothing" in other areas.

Jingle

I use poly batting/wadding most of the time. I never quilt anything less than 3".

Welcome from outside St. Louis, Missouri.

Quilt30

If you plan on doing a lot of straight line machine quilting it will be a good investment to purchase a walking or even feed foot. It will make your quilting easier and less stressful. If you do, I strongly suggest you get the foot made specifically for your brand of machine. The generic feet don’t often work successful.

hray

Just wanted to mention, as you said this was your first quilt--make sure you do your quilting before you put on your binding. That allows you to trim up any uneven edges, rather than getting a lot of bumps or wrinkles along the edges if you try to bind it first.

IceLeopard

Someone mentioned glue basting. In my experience, glue basting *does not work* on poly batting. Pin basting is probably your best bet. Because I do a lot of free motion quilting, I pin baste in rows about 4 inches apart and then load the machine with a water-soluble thread. Baste with that between the rows of pins and then they can be removed. No need then to worry about accidentally hitting a pin and damaging the machine.

cfarrinford

Hi,

Thanks again for all your help.

I’ve made a start but appear to have encountered a problem already...I’ve tried using the 505 spray but the top layer of fabric seems to have gone wrinkly...

I put the top layer face down, then sprayed, then did batting, then sprayed, then did bottom fabric. When I turned it over to check the top fabric was wrinkly. Is this due to the spray glue? Have I sprayed too much? Will it be ok or should I start again?

When some of you say ‘pin baste’ do you mean just put lots of pins into all the layers to keep it all together? Sorry for my lack of knowledge!

Iceblossom

It takes awhile to get the hang of the correct amount of spray baste, you want light but thorough and not so much as to soak through the fabric or make things really unpleasantly gummy. If you do overspray, don't despair, just fluff out the project for a couple of days and ignore it, then try it again, whether that is for positioning the fabric or if your needle is getting all gummy all the time.

You can/should smooth out/reposition your fabric after that first time, especially to get out some of the worst wrinkles. As a new quilter, even being super careful, you probably should expect a few wrinkles even on a smaller project or what some of us call "pookies" which can somehow get big enough to stick a toe in, yet the outer edges still look remarkably consistent. A plain white sheet is a pretty unforgiving quilt back, prints can hide a multitude of problems.

I used my 6.5x24" ruler to help sweep out the wrinkles, sort of the same thing as when you are putting on wallpaper.

Typically people start out with too much spray baste and they can stick their fabric together into perma wrinkles pretty easy, only way to get out of that is to very carefully straighten things out and then stick them down correctly before they go back to what they were and now want to be.

Pin basting is using safety pins to temporarily hold everything down. You need a lot of safety pins (couple hundred for a queen sized project) to do it correctly, the idea it that you can't put your hand down without touching a pin. There there types of pins and things to do to help, but it also involves getting down on the floor for some of us (I'll do a lot of things on the protected foam mattress like spray baste, but I don't like to pin on a water bed, even if protected!).

donna13350

The only thing that I would add is when you stitch your lines, make sure to quilt one row in one direction, then the alternate row the opposite direction..this will help keep your layers from shifting.