ARG! Need some advise/tips
 

Spent 6 hours today basting batting and back to quilt top...STILL I found folds in the back. Problem here is space. I cannot take over the floor with back taped up to baste because of the animals. What do some of you do to keep your back from folding/wrinkling if you can't use a large space? Sew darn frustrating!

Some use the their church's spaces to baste , when its not a time for services or meetings. I have seen some use tables at the library . Many LQS allow people to baste in classroom space when not in use. Maybe even your JoAnns has a classroom that you could use.

I cover my bed and put the layers together with spray glue--about a third section at a time. No folds.

Ah yes, spray glue. Not in my budget lately, but that is a great idea!

I use Sharon Schambers method. She has videos on youtube. It takes up a whole lot less space plus you get to sit in a chair and work at a table. Now, instead of doing her hand stitching I use spray baste for the center and just do the hand basting along the borders. Comes out perfectly smooth every time.

I use Sharon Schambers' method, too, except I only use pins. It does take up space but not like using the floor. I put a card table next to my dining room table for large lap quilts - the quilts are large, not the laps. I've never had a wrinkle and it's so much faster and easier than packing everything to go to the church.

even a LQS may let you use their classroom for basting.
peace

I have a glass topped dining table, use clamps from home depot. I pin with safety pins and move , clamp and keep going until it is all pinned. Good luck.

Do you have a wall you could use? I've read of others who have basted this way, but I think it was spray basting.

I got to the library

you can baste a king size quilt on a card table. Just center each piece then baste that section; pull the next unbasted section over the card table. Then pull right, left, top bottom and baste until all is completed. No need to lay it out full on the floor or table.

I take it to work and put it together after hours or at lunchtime

I do mine in my hall on the wall and I pin baste.[ATTACH=CONFIG]365101[/ATTACH]

I use the Elmer's School Glue. It's a heck of a lot cheaper then the basting spray and works wonderfully. Also, per advice of another QB member, I lay out the batting first, then glue the backing to it. Once dry, I flip it over and glue the front.

I've only done this, with the Warm & White batting. Not sure it'd work, with poly batting.

Garage floor with a shower curtain or two.

I like Sharon Shamber's method when I have a large quilt to baste. I use straight pins and Pinmoors. Fast and no pin pricks!

I do something similar to Jingle. I use my cutting table which is about 40" by 60" and don't usually make anything larger than around double bed size. I center the quilt back on the table and fasten it down, then add the other parts and smooth them down. After basting the middle, I unclamp and move the whole piece left or right. Most of the time I am able to get the rest of that side onto the table. Repeat the clamping and pinning. Then do the opposite side the same way. Once the center is done, I turn the quilt 90 degrees so most of the top is now on the table. Continue the process and then do the bottom the same way. I can't get down on my knees to do it, and most of the house is carpeted (this is Minnesota, after all!) So this works for me.

I also use the Susan Schamber method and learned not to worry about the wrinkles because they do quilt out because you're stretching the fabric as you quilt.

I tried something different the other day. I was in a very big hurry. I had washed and dried the backing but hadn't pressed it yet.

I "commandeered" some very large, flat boxes from work (we ordered 3 of the floor mats for office chairs and when I saw the boxes they were in, I wrote "DIBS" on them!) and laid 2 of them on the floor. I had to use my bedroom floor and close the door to keep the critters out.

I put the backing down and sprayed some starch on it, then put the batting down. Then I sat down right in the middle of it, and smoothed it out. I didn't take too long and didn't get overly obsessive about it. So far, so good. My knees weren't hurting, and that's what mattered to me. I sprayed more starch on the batting and put the top on, sat on the quilt, smoothed, etc.

Then I flipped it over, and it looked like a wrinkle convention happened on the backing. No problem, because I didn't take much time to really do it, so, I started tugging and messing with it, and then I remembered the "board method". I left 1/2 of the backing where it was and rolled up the other half on a board that I had (hand quilt frame). I re-sprayed starch on the batting and un-rolled the backing/board and pressed it as I went. Flipped it around and did the same to the other side (my iron cord wouldn't reach!). Ta da! Turned out really really well.

Turned the quilt right side up, and pressed the top and put safety pins to hold it every square. I didn't have a whole lot of faith with using starch, but I didn't want a thousand pins either.

It held together really really well and didn't take as long as I thought it would, but my knees were starting to hurt. Should have put my knee pads on! The cats weren't even scratching at the door! I am almost finished with the quilting, and I haven't found any puckers on the back. I don't know that this method would be a good one if I basted today and waited 6 months to quilt it, but it sure went from floor to sewing machine just fine! And I couldn't tell that using the cardboard as an ironing board hurt my tile vinyl floor any.

I figured if quilters could use Elmers Glue, then I'd give spray starch a try. $1/can. Oh! I'm going to post this on that thread, too!!

Many churches have meeting rooms with folding "banquet" tables that can be pushed together for this purpose. My town's senior center is that place local quilters use.

With lap sized quilts, I drape them over my own table, using gravity to help me....along with a lot of smoothing by hand.

i like this idea - it's so much better on the knees, too :thumbup:

With coupon it's not that expensive at JoAnn's - under $10 a can. In any event, how much is it worth NOT to have problems?

I used a large quilting hoop when basting to hold everything tight.

I use quilt frames. One set is at least 100 years old, a "double bed" size I stapled a denim strip on all my sticks to which I pin the quilt. (My mother-in-law used thumb tacks.) And I use bolts to hold the sticks together. (C-clamps work, too.) I have two sticks that are 96 inches long; made by my son from the old baseboards in this house. I have two more sticks 48 inches long for small quilts. I use them all, all the time. Everything is pulled really tight. I can pin-baste a quilt in about an hour. If I'm going to tie the quilt, that takes longer. Everything is smooth for FMQing.

Before I discovered putting the dogs outside - I used our bed. Now I put the dogs outside before putting the quilting all together with batting and back, vacuum the floor, and proceed. Once I'm finished, the dogs can come back inside.

I use the top of our pinging table! Love it for the large quilts.

I hear you on basting spray not being in the budget :) Keep an eye out if you have a JoAnn's or Hancocks, every once in a while I'm able to pick up a can for less than $5 using a coupon. And once in a blue moon it will show up at my Wal-mart for $4! These days I'm literally saving my pennies for quilting goods lol oh to have disposable income again lol someday :)

I have one of the craft tables similar to the one available at JoAnn's that the sides fold down. Use it for cutting, ironing, everything. As others in this thread have said, center the backing, clamp with the binder/bulldog clips from the office supply stores. I use 3 on each long side and 2 on each short end. Smooth, clamp. Lay out the batting, smooth, start in the middle of one of the long sides; unclamp first layer and then use same clamp in same position for the 2 layers. Repeat process with the top. I then usually pin baste but it it's a king will sometimes thread baste to keep the weight down. Then just reposition as necessary until the whole top is basted. Sometimes takes some time but I'm not on my hands/knees and I'm not bending at all kinds of odd angles. Back and knees just won't take that kind of abuse.

I can't get down on the floor to baste. I use my ironing board over which I have placed a 4 x 6' sheet of plywood. I clamp the backing tautly to the plywood, spread the batting smoothly, and then put the top on, and clamp it all around. No puckers or wrinkles and no hurt back or knees.

Ask if you can use the space in a church, library, school or other local building that has large tables. I do this and most are very accommodating and then I can tape my back down smoothly, continue layering and then I pin baste. My quilt guild actually meets for a work day at the local library and we can layer many quilts in the space they allow us to use. Some work on the floor, others on tables.

Last week I stripped our king size bed down to the mattress pad to wash the sheets. I was getting ready to sandwich a quilt and since my sewing area is in our master bedroom, I just used our bed to lay it out, backing fabric first. As I began to pull the backing fabric into position I realized it flat out wasn't going to move unless I lifted it up and repositioned the entire piece of fabric! The mattress pad is vinyl backed and has a knit tricot top to it, so it was holding the fabric in place. I then just pulled at the four sides until the fabric was stretched nice and smooth, then sprayed (505 spray) one side of the batting, smoothed it onto the backing fabric, then sprayed the top of the batting and smoothed on the quilt top. It worked PERFECTLY! Now I'll be sure to save up my sandwiching for the days I wash just the sheets!

I have 2 of those cardboard cutting mats. Place these sideside on the bed and lay out my quilt there to pin baste. I can push pins into the backing to keep them flat as I put the layers together. Plus, I don't have to get on the floor, or should I say try to get UP.

I used Sharon's method with basting spray. The boards really worked well to control the fabric and work with it. And it is a sit down method! Any little thing to save my poor body.

if you have a table that you can tape the edges of the backing (i have to tape under the edge of the roll around table I have) you can tape it and baste from there. That is what I do. hope it helps.

I wish there was a service somewhere just for basting quilts. So many of us have small apartments or no wall space or large table. They could either just hand baste or put in the safety pins, or any other way the customer wanted. I think this would be a good business for someone.!!

Elmers washable school glue will work and washes out. Not expensive.

You can do this on a table you lay half the back on the table other half hang off the edge then layer the batting and top the same way. Pin this part now slide it so you can do some more on this half when done do the other half it sure makes it easier than wrestling the whole quilt.

I use my floor or my diningroom table. I do spraybaste. You can get it 1/2 off at JoAnn with a coupon right now. Also Wal-Mart has it too.

Most long armers will do it for you for a very minimal charge. I would check and see if you can find one near you.

I don't have space either and animals that love to walk all over the fabric. I put my cats in my sewing room and put the dog in the bedroom with closed doors. I then quick vaceum my floor and then go to work taping down my quilt . Works for me.