Homemade basting spray
 

Has anyone here ever used hairspray or starch or watered down school glue to baste their quilt? Was it successfull? What changes would you make?

I've been going to try watered down Elmer's washable school glue but haven't gotten around to it. Anxious to hear if anyone else has tried it and what the results were.

There are a few threads about using Elmer's for basting. Check out this thread:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...o-t196786.html

Thanks for the link

Try this link. Jenniky is leading a QAYG with a lot of info about quilters who are experimenting with and have successfully used Elmer's washable school glue in their quilting.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/quiltin...e-t196192.html

I use Elmer's Glue to do my binding. Works great!

Very interesting! I'm going to be making some table runners in the not so distant future... I think I'll give the Elmer's a try. I do like spray basting but the stuff is quite expensive especially when you can pick up a thing of glue for a quarter, dime or even a penny right now with back to school specials :) Maybe I'll do a comparison of techniques and see how they all compare :)

Nancy Zieman uses little snips of wonder under. I have used it on small projects. I have not heard of watering down glue...sounds interesting. Thanks for the link.

I have read many comments about starch use. I have never used it in over 30 years of quilting and my quilts are accurate. I don't believe that early quilters used it either. After all, heating a heavy iron made of iron on a stove that required stoking would be a terrible job. Early quilters could made an accurate Mariner's Compass without starch. They could also make inaccurate ones just like today. Certainly, some of our tools make our accuracy easier and I so use rotary cutting and wonderful rulers.

However, I cringe to think that new quilters read comments about needing to use starch in order to have an accurate quilt. That is simply not true.

What does make for machine assembly accuracy is accurate templates, cutting and sewing slow enough in order to control the fabric as it goes under the presser foot of the sewing machine. When hand sewing, it requires accurate templates, careful fabric marking, and stitching on both patches marked sewing lines.
And for either machine or hand sewing, pressing gently, not ironing with vigor is crucial.

I apologize if I've ruffled anyone's feathers, however, I've bitten my tongue long enough. And I've tried starching. It took too long and didn't add anything to my quilting accuracy, I simply don't see the point.
SandyQuilter

I tend to agree, I really don't starch either.....But I do think it is a case of "to each their own"....what works for one may not work for another......and the most important rule in quilting (IMHO) there are NO rules.