Can we use Elmer's glue to sandwich a quilt? For me, sandwiching is often the most tedious part of quilting.

Yes, you can. You glue the backing to the batting and then the top of your quilt to the batting. What's cool is that if you find your top is not lined up with your backing the way you want it, you can pull the top apart (or spray the top with water and then pull it apart) and start over.

When gluing your quilt sandwich together I think it is best to experiment with what method works for you.

Gluing works for me because my hands are becoming more arthritic and cannot handle the pinning of a quilt sandwich.

I have read all of the posts and o one has mentioned the actual sewing. I'm concerned with how the glue affects or not the needle gumming up. does it???? thanks

The washable school glue is dry when you sew... sewww, no gumming up of your needle. The glue is dry when you sew either because you let it dry on its own or you touched it with a warm iron and dried it. Basically, unless you are putting huge globs of glue on you don't even notice sewing through the glue.

During my learning curve trials I put a little too much glue on the binding and had a hard time pushing my hand needle through. That problem was easily solved by wetting the area, letting it dry and re gluing. The key here is the fact that this glue is washable so it disappears when whetted.

I've been trying out washable glue-stick basting for the last few weeks and am really happy with my experiments.

While I usually use fusible batting (Hobbs 80/20), I wanted to use fleece as a backing on a quilt, without batting. The glue stick, used in quick lines about 4" apart, turned out perfectly.

Now I am in the middle of making a snowball quilt, and have to sew on 400 tip squares. Instead of pinning the little squares on each corner of the snowball, I'm using the glue stick: 3 quick dabs. No temptation to sew over pins, very stable, very accurate!

It's a joy to do!

If you use glue, does the item have to be washed afterwards, as I do not wash my table runners and wall hangings?

Other people may have better answers than I have... I use washable glue because it washes out and I wash all my quilts before I give them away. I would not use glue to baste with if I thought there was the chance it would stay in the quilt.

Yes, you definitely need to wash afterwards, as school glue is starch and will attract bugs....but I always wash when done to get rid of any dirts/oils the quilt may have picked up from my hands during construction, as well as to wash out the glue.

I respectfully disagree. Elmer's website states that their washable school glue is polyvinyl acetate, which is a type of plastic.

Love my glue, I use bottled and stick form. Cant be without it.