I live in a very small house and have limited space for basting no dinner table or floor space or walls so any advice will be helpful thanks
retiac

i can baste a large quilt on a card table or one of those 24"x48" tables.

it would be difficult to baste on your sewing machine as you need to stretch all the layers and pin them someway prior to quilting.

What about a church or library or someplace like that?? Good luck..

would love to but housebound at the moment due to multiple illness
retiac

I too have limited mobility and space so I manage by finding the center of the backing and placing it on the center of my table. If possible, I tape it down. Then I center quilt top on it, yes before I put batting down. Then I fold one half of the quilt top over and put the center of the batting as close to the middle as possible. I roll the batting up to the center and fold the quilt top back over the batting. Then I fold the other side of the quilt top over and pull the batting to that side. Picture how they change sheets on a bed in the hospital when they can't move the patient. If you are careful and pin as far out from the center as possible, it works. I pin as far in each direction as I can and then I slide the quilt over and finish pinning each side. I always check to make sure I have gotten any folds or tucks in the back before I actually start quilting but with a little practice, it works pretty good.

The reason I do this is my backs have usually been pieced and it is important to have it centered under the top. If your back doesn't have an obvious center, I guess you wouldn't have to do the roll up of the batting and could just put it down after the back like normal.

I baste my quilts on my sewing machine. I smooth out my layers and break the top into a grid - usually big squares, that I outline in marking chalk or pencil. I put an X in each square. A lap quilt would be 6 squares.

I start with the middle 2 squares, smooth out the fabric, and pin down, pinning the X's first, then around the square, checking both sides when I'm done to be sure I don't have ripples or pleats. I then baste the squares on my machine, doing the X's first, then the outline of the square.

When I'm done I check it again to be sure it's smooth, then go to the next section, which would be either the top or bottom 2 squares if you are doing a lap quilt.

I do this no matter how big the quilt is. Since I'm just working in sections, I can lay out a little at a time. The trick to doing this is (1) making sure the front and the back are straight, and centered if you have a centered design, before you sew the middle squares, (2) making sure you have no ripples or pleats, and (3) allowing a little extra batting and backing fabric in case you need to square off the quilt when done.

A basting adhesive spray comes in really handy. I use one sided fusible batting, which I fuse to my quilt top, which is pretty handy as well.

It takes some practice, but it can be done successfully. The bigger the quilt, the more squares you will need.

This method is especially helpful if you are doing free motion quilting - it's much easier to FMQ on one grid at a time.

up to lap size i use my ironing board---mark centers on all 4 sides of th 3 layers --put card board on the iron pad so you can pin without attatching it to the pad[did thatx1]pin out from center one side at at time moveing as needed----i now use the spary stuff same way no pins do it out side wear a mask

You can also use one of the cardboard sewing mats (JoAnn's) Put it on your bed and it will give you a sturdy surface to pin on.

thanks for the advice will try and let you know
retiac