Basting queen quilt
 

I am working on a queen size quilt My quilt top is a disappearing nine patch. I am wondering what is the best way to baste the quilt. I don't want to have to get down on the floor. I am trying to decide if I want to do Quilt as you Go so I would only have to baste a small section, which I could do on a table or if I should try Sharon Schamber's technique of board basting

is there a church, library, or quilt guild where you can use their long tables? and you may get lucky and get some quilting volunteers to help. several of us helped another quilter yesterday and the basting was done in no time.

That is the hardest part of quilting for me! I do have a kitchen island that sometimes works well. Sometimes a friend and I meet at her work place (and where I retired from) and we push together some big tables and pin 3 or 4 quilts at a time. Sometimes the LQS has an open work day and I use their tables too. Good luck finding a place!

I strip our bed down to the bottom sheet and lay out the layers on that. I use a computer chair and that lets me work along and around the bed comfortably to baste it altogether.
I have rheumatoid arthritis; getting up and down and working on the floor to do something like this is not funny these days. The bed neatly solved my problem :)

Mary

I love the board basting method...works best if you cover your boards in flannel or batting, so the fabric clings to it. It is so much easier! I actually need a longer set of boards also for larger quilts.

Have you used this method with large quilts?

I also love the Sharon Schamber board basting technique. The only drawback is that you need a table as wide as your quilt. I haven't done a queen size yet, but I see no reason why it would pose any problem (I've done doubles). It's so enjoyable to baste that way, and the herringbone basting stitch done with tatting thread holds brilliantly, even when quilting by machine.

when i read the title of this thread I totally misread it .... basting queen quilt....as in "basting queen" as a person's title....sorry ......looking forward to a picture or two when you get it completed.

I have NEVER gotten down on the floor to baste a quilt! I use a 7 foot table (that's only 84" long) to baste any size quilt.
I use large bulldog clamps from the office supply store to stabilize the layers, one at a time, leaving excess length hanging off each end.
Starting in the middle I hand baste, without boards although I've tried them and they're okay, going from the middle to one side as far as I can go. I leave a long length of thread at the start so that I can rethread the basting needle and go the opposite direction when I 'm ready to.
Then I leave the thread and needle in the fabric, start another row of basting about 4-5 inches apart, and baste in the same direction, and stop as I did before.
After I've basted as many rows as I can on that width of the table, I rethread the needle and baste the other direction as many rows as possible.
At that point I unclamp the layers, shift the quilt one direction or the other, adjust and reclamp the layers, and continue the basting of the previous rows to the edge of the quilt.
When that is done I unclamp, shift, reclamp, and baste as needed to finish the quilt.

This process takes me the better part of an afternoon, or even a day, but it's my preferred way above all others.
Quilts that I have basted have been dragged around, hooped and re-hooped, folded, opened, spread on a table, refolded, turned and rehooped yet again.....and I've NEVER had a problem with the layers shifting or coming apart. And when I handquilt, it takes a year or more!`

Jan in VA

Many longarmers will baste your quilt for a small fee.