Basic help needed please
 

Hi,
I am about to make my first quilt and had a couple of questions. I am not doing a patchwork quilt, I am planning on having one piece of fabric on the front, one on the back, with bias binding around the end with polyester wadding in the middle

1. I was planning on using polyester wadding, will I need to change any setting on my sewing machine, like the tension, in order to be able to sew through this?
2. Should I pre wash the polyester wadding?
3. I am going to sew straight lines through, to hold it together, how far apart should these lines be?
4. Do I need to use the baste spray to hold it all together or is pinning better?

Anything else I haven't thought of?
P.S. This is for baby play mat so will be washed lots

You will need a walking foot to sew straight lines across your quilt. You shouldn't have to change any settings on your machine, but make a small "sandwich" and test it until you have it right.

Polyester wadding is fine but keep in mind that it is puffy. Do not wash it first. Cotton works well and I think it's easier for a beginner to quilt through.

The package will tell you how much room you can leave between lines, but I think an inch or so is about the widest. I use painter's tape to make guidelines. Make sure you baste your three layers very, very well. I use large safety pins and remove them as I go. When I was just beginning, however, I used fusible wadding - you iron it to hold it tight. There are lots of you tube videos online to give you hints. Good luck!

Mkotch gave some good stuff, I'd say you don't really need a walking foot, it will help and is nice to have, but I went without for about 30-40 years myself.

As said, follow the instructions given with your wadding/batting. It will be unlikely with most batting to have less quilting than about every 4-6 inches apart, but it varies greatly. There are structural reasons for quilting, I can tell you from my own early quilts, it is not the seams that fall apart but the big areas of unquilted fabric rots out. I personally prefer puffier batts with less quilting than is currently popular, but that is still more quilting than I did at first. Do not wash first, but if it has been in a bag lightly air fluff it a bit (couple minutes) first on air/with minimal heat to get the creases out, or spread out and let it rest for a day or two.

Always test your stitches first on a separate layered piece of fabric/batting/back to get your stitch length/tension correct. You will need a reasonably large needle for the quilting part, probably at least a 14. You might want to use a top stitch needle, I typically just use universal needles.

I prefer to spray baste. A lot of people here recommend glue basting, I keep saying I'm going to try it and people keep giving me old cans of spray baste to use up. I have a small house and it is not ideal but my queen sized bed is my largest available space. I take off the blankets and pillows and cover my bed with kraft (heavy brown) paper to use it as a work surface.

I agree to check the batting pkg for quilting distance recommendations. I have 2 in the closet at the moment. One says quilt 2 - 4 inches apart. The other says no more than 5 inches. As per spray basting, try this on a sample piece. I have heard some have issues with poly batting. This may depend on the brand of spray. I have never used it, just pin baste mine. Have fun with your new project

I have a hard time spray basting poly. This might be a good time to try glue basting. Pins would drive me insane(r).
Don't pull your backing tight before you baste it. Just the same tautness as your front.

Painter's tape is a good idea or I usually just use regular white chalk lines drawn lightly on every 6-8 inches and sew depending on what the batting suggests. Be sure when you get near the edges that they aren't turned under on the backing.

I also would suggest a walking foot, if possible.

Start in the middle and work out to both sides

Let us know how it is going.

Watson

Wow, thank you so much for all your help, hugely appreciated.

batting/wadding- I just bought it off a roll from a fabric shop so no instructions about distance between sewing lines. I was planning on doing about every 5 inches because I think that looks nice, I didn’t realise there was a recommended distance depending on the type of wadding. The lady in the shop told me that polyester wadding was the best at being washed, I am making a quilt for my baby to sit in the garden on so am anticipating needing to wash it quite frequently. This looks like fairly dense, this wadding. Will 5 inches be ok do you reckon? What happens if you don’t sewing the lines close enough together?

spray- I will try it on a sample piece first as I have made Roman blinds in the past and had problems with the underside going a bit baggy, pinning it didn’t seem to work that well. The problems you’ve experienced with polyester has it been problems with it sticking or problems with the look of the finished quilt?

walking foot- I had never heard of these so thanks for the advice. I will try this quilt without buying one and see how I get on, I’ve looked them up and they’re quite expensive so will give it a go without and see how it goes.

Thanks again so much for taking the time to give me so much advice

When I first was quilting I bought poly batt that was too thick. My go-to now is 1/4" poly, as I love the way it drapes, and I am not a fan of too-dense quilting. I do not like spray baste, but put a sheet of plywood on my dining room table and tape my backing down with painters tape, then I pin baste [and yes, I also hand baste with a long stitch and remove the pins before sewing].

Your "floor quilt" will probably need a thicker batting than 1/4", but don't get a 1" one or you will have massive trouble quilting it. In my opinion.

How about using one of those 1/4" feet that have a sort of arm where you can set the distance apart in quilting straight lines?

First off let me welcome ;you to the QB from SE Michigan! A walking foot is recommended but you can make your quilt without it. You will get a much nicer finish with the walking foot they run around $15-20 USA With the being your first quilt you may not want to make that investment yet but it will make things go much smoother.. It doesn't sound like your quilt is going to be much larger than a twin to full size quilt. Go easy on yourself. I want to see you grow in your love of quilting. Again welcome to the QB!

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!

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.

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.

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

Welcome from outside St. Louis, Missouri.

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.

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.

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.

Have made a start but...
 

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!

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!).

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.

Thank you
 

Thank you all so much for your fantastic advice. First quilt completed https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/smile.png. It actually went far better than expected and to the untrained eye doesn’t look too bad.

I am going to try to make another one soon so may be back on with some more questions.

First question, I used a polyester batting/wadding from our local craft shop. It fits the purpose perfectly but for my second one I would like it to hang slightly more nicely. Any advice on what inner to use? Bearing in mind it is for my children and hence will need washing. I’ve got lots of cotton curtains interlining, would that be a possibility or not?

A lot of curtain material (even cotton) isn't meant to be washed. I'd cut a square of the interlining and wash/dry it as a test. When I do these things I write on the fabric itself with a sharpie what the original cut size was (so 12.5 x 12.5" or whatever). I put in a lingerie bag and wash the way I do all my other fabrics which is for me normal cycle with warm water (my washer only offers cold rinse), and then dry on warm. I examine the material as it comes out of the washer on how it holds up, again after drying and re-measure to test for shrinkage and examine the edges for fraying, if any coating is coming off the material, general close inspection.

The easily found recommended batting of choice right now is Warm & Natural (off white) or Warm & Bright (white) or something similar. For me, I find that too heavy and do prefer a poly batting -- and there are all different weights and weaves/processes that give different final results -- but sometimes for the project I am doing W&N is exactly what I want too. There is no single answer.