I am looking forward to seeing the Elmers Glue basting too. Was curious about how it is done.

Here's what I recently did.
Using a table approx. 4' x 5-6' I laid out the batting and clipped it down to the table with big black "bulldog" clips (from office supply store).
Using spray basting I sprayed across the width of the batting approx a 12 wide area.
I folded up the backing like the picture below, and with one person (my mom!) on one side and me on the other, we carefully placed the backing on top of the sprayed batting, just covering the sticky area and leaving the rest of the backing folded.
We smoothed that section and made sure all edges were adhered.
We sprayed another 12" section across the batting, laid the next fold of the backing on the sprayed section, smoothed it down well, spray the next section of batting, lay on the backing, smoothed it down, etc., etc.

When the batting and backing were fused together, I turned the whole unit over and folded the quilt top in the same manner.
Clamped the unit to the table.
Sprayed the batting in a 12" wide section as before, laid the top on it, smoothed it down well, and continued as before, fold by fold.

I have moved this quilt around, on and off the sewing table, under the machine needle and out again, folded it up to set the laptop on the table, unfolded it and began quilting again, and NOT A PROBLEM yet.
At all.
No puckering.
No shifting of fabric from edge to edge or side to side.
No failure of the fuse.
I am delighted with my first basting spray use in 15 years.
It's supposed to wash out when I finish the binding, let's all believe for that!

Jan in VA

This is the problem I always have with a large quilt. I ended up taking to Long arm quilter because i could not do the basting. it is a big job. I need to figure out something else also because I cannot aford to send each quilt out. Cost is too much. I feel bad for you and have been there. Even when you have a large area, then you cannot reach the middle.

I've struggled with basting in the past too. I hand basted one quilt on the floor. That was a pain, in the back and neck and knees and pretty much every where else! LOL Then I had a couple basted by a longarmer that didn't really know how to do that and that was a mess. Then I found Sharon Schamber's method and I've used that several times with good success. Now I use a hybrid method of rolling the top and back on the boards but now I spray baste the center and just pin baste down the borders. I have two of the 5 foot folding tables from Wal-Mart so they don't take up a lot of space and I have a set of 6 foot boards and a set of 10 foot boards and they store behind the sofa in the family room. When I run out of 505 I may try the Elmer's glue since I live in a small town and have to order the 505 but I can get Elmer's easy enough.

Using the board method gives you a small area to work with and it keeps your backing, batting and top all very nice and smooth.

This is the one process that seems to be most frustrating to me. Even after I've pinned, I double check to make sure the back is as smooth as the front. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. So I start all over again. It's a real pain and time consuming but it pays off when I start hand quilting. I just have to remember to go slowly and be very patient with myself.

My first baby quilt I had to redo several times till I smarten up and look on the QB for guidance, I taped the bottom down to the floor to keep it straight and taut then but the batting and sray basted it to the bottom than the top. It worked out perfect. Again thank QB for all your help.

Great advise! Thanks for sharing. G

jan, you are always such a font of great advice! I had such good luck (finally) getting my seams to match with Elmer's I am looking forward to seeing the glue tutorial.

I am finally quilting my first quilt now (that's a post all by itself!), that had I hand basted on the living room floor. Even my DH said there has to be a better way. The back didn't look smooth enough to me, but it's quilting up nice and flat. The top, however...

I do mine on a table with backing clipped on the edges. I pin it in sections starting in the middle. It seems to work quite well for me, I live in an apartment and do not have any extra space for doing large auilts.

I'm so glad to hear I'm not the only one. This is the only part of quilting that I dread and always have problems with. I've been wrestling with a queen size one for months, and still need to redo it again.