Do you apply Elmers for basting like THIS?
 

There are many of us who still do not have the "picture" of how this glue basting is done.

Please tell us which, if any, of these ways you apply the glue when you are basting a quilt.
Also, do you apply the glue to the fabric or the batting? Do you glue the front or the back first?

Thanks!

Jan in VA

That should read SPREAD not pread in C!

I've basted with waves (A) but I've also done it in grid form but I think
I prefer the grid form because I know where I'm going. I prefer to
put the batting down first, apply the glue on the batting then apply the
fabric to it. Please start with a small project or even just scraps just
to get a feel. I wasn't happy the first time but I'm glad I didn't ruin
anything. On large quilts I use binder clips to anchor everything down
just like you would with other basting methods. Start in the middle
and work your way out row by row. I also prefer to thin the glue about
1:3 and use a paint brush and use the iron to set it. Hope this helps.
as I go.

Is that 1 part water to 3 parts glue?

I think you would do better to use quilt spray like June Taylor brand.
I use Elmer's glue only for binding and small projects as seen here http://sandyquilts.blogspot.com/2008...nd-quilts.html

I spray baste. I never could get the hang of using glue for the binding. used way too much!

Thank you, Jan, for starting this thread! I've seen many methods and techniques for sandwiching, all of which are successful. While I've used one particular method with success, as a beginner it's great to know that there are other methods that will get me to my ultimate destination. Different methods work for each individual, and- like cars- any of them will get you from Point A to Point B, but there's a style that fits everyone.
I've wondered about the specifics of applying the glue when using this method, and will be following this thread; thanks again!

I think someone posted a tutorial about this if you do a search.

I have arthritis and found this item to help me with glue basting. Works terrifically!!!

Here is a useful item. I am not affiliated with Lee Valley. My DH was ordering from their catalog so when I saw this I knew I could put it to good use in glue basting. This is very inexpensive and one of hte 3 different sizes of tips will work for you... I am sure.
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/pag...at=1,110,42967

I completely agree with EasyPeezy on post #2 about starting out with a small project or scraps. It is easy and you will get the hang of it. Try not to be afraid of it since it is washable and will all come out. Even on your iron.

PS: sorry Jan, I almost forgot to answer your question. I have used all of the photos you have shown. Not sure which I like the best. They all work and if you get tooo much, you can always swipe it off with your finger.

Sorry, I should have said 1 part glue to 3 parts water. You have to
play with it. I go by feel and thinned it until it looks like whole milk.
My glue might have been a bit thicker because it was a few
years old. If you use fresh glue you may not have to thin in as
much.

I have 3 of those bottles! left from refilling my printer's ink cartridge!! I KNEW i'd find a use for them someday. I guess I am almost a hoarder.

I generally put the glue on like you did in picture A.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that I keep a damp towel near me. That way I don't have
to go to the sink every time. I just wipe my hands when I get glue on them. Saves time.

And if you ever get a fold under (I had a really bad crease the other day) I sprayed that
part with water up to the closest edge (til soaking wet), lift gently and reposition.
You don't even have to add more glue. Use a dry towel to absorb the excess water.
Press with a pressing cloth until dry. Voila. Of course you can avoid creases if you secure
your batting with clips or painters tape but I was trying to be a smart... and paid for it. LOL

In this topic I really hoped there would be "gluers" who would share their particular methods of applying the glue, rather than alternatives to using glue. We know those. We want details on gluing! Thanks to those who are giving them to us.:)

Jan in VA

Bastinga quilt with Elmer’s School Glue

Two most important things to remember:
<!--[if !supportLists]-->- <!--[endif]-->glue MUST be Elmer’s School Glue (because it is washable)
<!--[if !supportLists]-->- <!--[endif]-->glue must be 100% dry beforeyou start quilting

Lay your backing on the table and straighten.
Lay your batting on the backing and straighten.
Lay your quilt top on the batting.

If the quilt is too large to fit on the table, center it as much as possible. Find which way you have the least amount of hanging over the table. I usually put the width of my quilt to be the lengthof my table (60”).
Using safety pins, pin your quilt through the middle of the quilt widthwise, separating the quilt into two halves. Roll the top on one half as far as it will go – to the safety pins. At this point you may want to move the roll of the quilt all the way to the edge of the table leaving a large area of batting exposed to give yourself more working area. Use chairs or lowered ironing board to support the weight of the hanging part ofthe quilt.
Apply Elmer’s School Glue I thin lines, or dots, or drizzles on the bating in the width of 12”-18”. I make a grid with lines about 2”-3” apart. Fold the top over the glue (12”-18”) and straighten with your hands from the middle outwards. Keep doing this until you reach the top edge of the quilt. At this point, the glue has not set yet. Straighten yourtop with your hands, removing any possible imperfections. Dry by pressing with dry iron. Some people do not do this, but rather leave it to dry overnight, but I am the impatient kind and I use my iron.
Repeat the same procedure with the other half of the quilt. Once it is COMPLETELY dry, turn the quilt sandwich so the backing is facing up. Straighten your backing again. And repeat the same procedure as with the quilt top. Quilt as desired.
Hint: If you will be applying your binding by hand, go easy on the glue at the quilt edges. Although it does not bother the machine needle one bit, it can be tough to get the hand sewing needle through it. I just use a metal thimble, since I cannot seam to go easy on the glue.
Basting your quilt this way, will make sure that both your top and your backing are as straight as you can get them to be. I found that batting that has good consistency, such as W&N, works great. I hope this helps. Happy Quilting!

I have just posted my gluing method. I also sent you the same in PM. However, when I cut and pasted in the PM something happened and all many words got mushed together. Odd. Sorry about that.

I use A and B. They both work well for me.

I generally do something similar to diagram A, making sure that I get coverage no more than about 3 inches or so apart and that the sides are done to about 1 - 2 inches from the edges. I sort of drag the tip of the glue bottle along the fabric or batting while gently squeezing the bottle. It actually probably looks like a combination of diagrams A and D as sometimes it skips a little here and there.

I also thin my glue a bit. Can't really tell amount of water to glue as I just put some water in until it looks right. LOL I like to glue to be able to run easily, not make large globs, but still stays on top of the fabric and not be so thin that it soaks through like water.

Some of what I just wrote sounds a little vague, but it is a trial and error sort of thing to some degree. I hope I have helped you anyway!

Unfortunately some of us with asthma have trouble with sprays, so the glue may be a better choice.

I spread the glue onto the batting in thin lines about 3" apart....nothing exact about this process....I don't spread the glue, just patting down the top fabric spreads it enough....this is way easier than any other method of basting that I have found....I don't iron dry as I am spreading out the quilt on my pool table, just air dry....but ironing is alot faster!....If I have a blob of glue, just spread it out a bit with your finger....it's a very cheap method, no fumes, no overspray and any cleanup is done with a damp rag....I have done several this times and love it....try it on a small practice sandwich if you have doubts.....you will find that since spreading onto the batting, you won't have any wrinkles or puckers....no shifting of fabrics....and the glue will last until you wash the quilt....repositioning after drying can be done by dampening the fabric/glue until softened.....it's just starch and will wash out entirely without staining.....unless someone comes up with a better method, it's glue for me for all basting!

Tashana, are you watering down the glue as some others have suggested, or using it right from the bottle? (I too have been trying to get a good mental picture of this method!)

Basting with glue? I've never heard of this method before. Thank you for asking Jan! I'll watch this thread for answers

Tashana explains it very well. I have only made place mats so far, but did something that looked rather like "A" Ironed it dry. Not a wrinkle or bubble! I have a full size top that I will try it on next. I expect it to work out just fine! Good luck! BTW Jan, I have wondered how the quilt turned out that you posted a photo of, that I believe was a round robin type? It had a strange round that you needed to work around. If you have posted photos sense, I missed it. Story of my life!!!

I mark the center of the top and bottom edge of my quilt top and my backing fabric with a safety pin so I know where the center is when I go to put on the backing. Then I apply the glue right to the back of the quilt top often at every seam or matching point. Just a dot. I do about a foot down all across the quilt then press it down onto the batting. Then fold over a bit more, dot the glue and press into the batting until the whole front is adhered. Then I flip the top and backing over, match up my pins and then apply the glue to the by either drizzling it on, or with dots in a grid, smooth it out and then leave it overnight or iron it dry. I don't clamp anything down or tape any thing. If it a big quilt I will roll the top and bottom on board but opposite to the way is supposed to go so the back of the quilt top faces up instead of down.

I use 'A'. I have had excellent results with this method. I always have difficulty with basting spray because it gets everywhere!!!

Doesn't seem to matter if one glues or pins - getting the quilt ready for quilting is a lot of work and is the part I dislike the most! Always breath a sign of relief when ready to do the quilting!

I use the spray Elmer's, I think is better for quilts. For applique's I use the permenate glue stick, dollar store, which is not really that permenate. lol
Regular spray glue is kinda lumpy, Elmer's spray is a fine mist.
Syl

I didn't know Elmer's even made a spray glue! Guess I don't get out much. Does it wash out like the school glue?

thanks for asking this question. I have some elmers glue but have not yet used it so now i know how to apply when i do go to use it.

I always use glue to baste my quilt sandwich and have learned several things. First, I ONLY use Elmer's washable school glue now (be sure and look at the bottle because there is regular Elmer's white glue that is NOT washable). My all time favorite is the Elmer's washable "clear gel" glue because it seems easier to dilute and has a really nice consistency when diluted. I love that stuff!--I wish it didn't so much more $! Also, I tried a cheap store brand but had to use more than twice as much and it turned into a real big mess. I ended up going back over it a second time with Elmer's and re-sandwiching that one. (Even then, double glue-basted, it all washed out and I had no problems quilting it either!)

I glue baste one side at a time, in thirds or quarters, depending on the fabric, size of quilt, etc. I usually start at the top and work down because I have very little space to work with but you could start in the center and work outward because I don't think it really matters as long as you can smooth everything out. I like to apply the glue to the batting and then put the back (or top) on the batting while smoothing with my hands, probably a third of the quilt at a time and I keep the rest rolled back out of the way. When I have my fabric smoothed down on top of the gluey batting I iron the fabric to set the glue and make double sure everything is smooth. I press using parchment paper between the iron and the sandwich to keep the glue off of my iron (not that it would hurt it) and yes, it does soak through -- I see dots and blobs and lines of wet glue showing through the fabric at this point (that is, if it's not too pieced and definitely on the backing fabric if it is a solid it will show quite a bit) but it will dry. I panicked the first time I saw this thinking I had used too much glue, but now I use the wet glue "spots" as a guide (when I can see them) so I know exactly how "basted" my sandwich is. Just like you would want to use a certain number of stitches a certain distance apart, you also want to make sure that the glue is distributed fairly evenly -- meaning, not perfect but making sure all areas have at least a blob or line or two every few inches--you don't want any large sections just floating without any glue at all. It should be glued all over so it will stick together with the glue acting like hundreds of little "pins." This is esssentially what you are doing -- using a temporary "pinning" technique. Just like pins, there will be areas between the glue spots that are not glued (pinned) but as long as you have enough pins, or glued spots in this case, the sandwich will stay put.

Ok, I've done the first side and I usually don't even wait for this side to dry -- I just flip it over and do the same for the other side, one third at a time keeping the rest rolled back until I'm ready to do the next third. I haven't had the back shift while I do the other side, even though it isn't all dry. After I've done both sides I hang it up with clips overnight to make sure it dries thoroughly and quilt it the next day (or week!) or two.

My "technique" for putting the glue on the batting is extremely random and rather heavy-handed. When I first tried it I was VERY nervous about applying GLUE to my beautiful fabric and hard, hard work! (Plus, I honestly did not believe that it could actually work on fabric!) I was being SO very careful and it took a while, but I had no problem. After success upon success with this gluing technique, with every quilt I have become messier (and faster!) and so now I really just hold the bottle over the batting and squeeze it while moving my hand in circles or diagonally or really any old way. I just "scribble it right on there in lines, blobs, broken lines, whatever. I use a lot more glue now to make sure I get a secure sandwich and I have never had a problem quilting it (machine not hand) and have only noticed once or twice that my needle seemed to "hit" a blob (just felt like a thick seam or something similar), but nothing happened and stitches were fine. I only dilute the glue so it's easier to squirt it out of the bottle it comes in -- I don't use any special tips at all. I have found that if I dilute it any more than 50/50 it doesn't work as well so I probably dilute it a little less than 50/50, always more glue than water so it sticks well. Even after iron setting it and letting it dry overnight you can still easily pull the fabric away from the batting if you need to reposition for some reason. I only had to do that once or twice and I just did pulled it apart while dry and then reapplied the glue and set it again, waited a couple hours and quilted it.

I have used glue on the binding in the past, and I would use it again but I usually don't take the time. I use cotton batting (have used all brands, scrim, no scrim, whatever is on sale). I'm sure it would work just as well with a poly batting. While I'm glue basting in my messy, "let's get this done" way, I often think that if anyone saw my process they would probably think I was out of my mind and had no idea what I was doing! Yes, that's how easy it is!

I would like to know if anyone has had any problems using glue -- I have been pretty darn out of control with it and have never ever had any problems. I've even gotten glue on the "right" side of the quilt while wrestling with the rolled parts unrolling while I'm gluing another section! It just dries and then washes out without a trace. I've come a long way from standing in front of weeks of my hard work with an open bottle of Elmer's glue in my hand, terrified to put it on any tiny piece of my quilt sandwich!! Washing my finished quilt is the first thing I do when I've completed the binding and I have never ever had any problems with the glue not washing out, no matter how much I've used or how many times I used glue on it.

I was really scared to do it for a long time, but now I just go at it like a mad woman and am not careful about it at all. I really hope this helps alleviate some of the fear for those of you who are really not sure about this glue basting. If I can do it in my haphazard way and never had a problem, I know you can do it! Feel free to pm me if you have any other questions I didn't answer here but I strongly suggest that you just go for it! (Use practice pieces of scrap fabric first if it makes you feel better.) Actually, after my experiences, I'm not really sure how you could do it "wrong!"

There are many, many reasons to avoid those sprays. The glue method is much safer for everyone AND the environment.

I applaud those who came up with the idea of the Elmer's Glue.

Thanks for the link. Great looking bottles. I ordered a couple of things more like the tea candle powered LED lantern. Never seen anything like that and looks handy for power outages.

Hi Jan

I use A and I air dry --I
don't iron

thanks for posting this. I've just spent the last 3 days googling this method for a video so I could 'see' it. I couldn't find a one...just that of Sharon S. binding the "Angel" quilt with the glue basting.

I needed to know just how they were applying to a very large quilt. And several have already answered my questions. Thanks to all of you that have been more specific in the details for those of us who are wanting to do this but are still scratching our heads.

One thing that is still puzzling me is how those using the board method are ironing the quilt as they go. I can see how you'd do it with spray. But not sure whether the heat of an iron would go through all 3 layers as I'm unrolling the boards.

Tips on that would be much appreciated. I LOVE using the boards..so easy to get my queen/kings smooth and centered...but would LOVE to do an easier method of basting using them, other than the thread basting.

I really like those bottles. Will have to be buying me some.

I do not water the glue. I use it directly from the bottle. On smaller projects, such as appliqué, I use glue sticks.

I haven't got a tremendous amount of experience with the glue except for applique and bindings, but this is how I do it. For smaller pieces, I use your a method using a tip on my glue. For bindings, I also use a tip. For pieces that I really want to be perfect, with no chance of any glue getting where I don't want it, I turn the pieced article upside down, apply the glue to seam allowances and then put the batting on top of that and iron. Then I go back to your method A on the backing and apply the batting/pieced part to the backing. My best advice is to use a tip just about all the time that you use the glue. You don't need much glue to get it to work very well. So far, I have not thinned my glue, but I am going to try that on my next charity quilt.

another good reason for not using spray to baste.
 

Having sold sewing machines for many years, you need to remember that spray basting can and does get into you machine via the needle. I have had customers bring there machines for cleaning, and the service techs made a note to the owners to stop using the spray as it was gumming up there machines.

Has anyone used an artist's paint brush or foam brush to put the glue on? Also, where do you get the spray Elmer's? When I googled it, those I found were water resistant.

I would like to know the answer to that also. http://www.quiltingboard.com/tutoria...d-t217470.html

I don't know if this thread will answer your question but I found it in tutorials and haven't had a chance to read it yet.