long arm basting for hand quilting
 

Someone who is a hand quilter asked me to baste a quilt for them on my gammill longarm because she can no longer get down on the floor to do it herself. What do I need to know? How close together should the rows of basting be? Should I baste it in both direction see? Thanks for any help you can give me.

Can't help you there. I am going to follow since basting is my least favorite thing to do. How much do you charge for such a service?

It doesn't need to be basted in both directions if you use rows of giant zig zags. You do need to pin the top and not float it though. That way the top and backing are both the same taut-ness.

I just basted a quilt this week on my long arm. I loaded the quilt on the machine and then using odds and ends of bobbins and thread, I set the machine to the largest stitch (about 1 inch in length) and just stitched straight across the quilt about every 3 to 4 inches. It turned out beautifully and my customer was happy with it and promised to bring more for me to do. It's a great way to use partially filled bobbins and those spools of thread that don't have much thread on them. It's all going to be taken out when the quilt is done anyway. I just stitched in one direction across the quilt. It only took a couple hours to baste a king size quilt. As for charging, I charged by the hour for it because I didn't think it was fair to charge the regular rate for long arm quilting because I really wasn't quilting it.

when I baste for hand quilters I generally do a 4" grid on the quilt for them- this is what was requested from me the first time I was asked to do it 10 years ago and the way I've been doing it every since- I load the quilt as normal- set my speed to slow- and drive fast (:D) . making large basting stitches across the quilt from one side to the other- then I unload, turn & reload to again stitch from side to side creating a grid.

I do the same as ckcowl except that I also baste down the top, edges and bottom as I go, just like when I quilt a quilt.
Well, I don't turn the quilt, just do vertical lines as I go. More starts and stops but not turning.

I charge a lot less than regular quilting and it averages $30-40 for a large quilt.

Lordy, I sure wish you were near me. I've adv'd for this basting and no one responded. I am way past that basting stuff anymore, tho I love to hand quilt. It has to be pins for me.

My stitch regulator doesn't have a stitch long enough to use for basting, and I haven't tried disabling the SR and driving fast, but I think I will try that if someone asks me to baste a quilt for them. (Not extremely likely since I don't longarm professionally, at least not at this time). What does work for me, but might not work for your customer, is basting with water soluble thread. That way the stitches dissolve when the quilt is washed and don't have to be removed as you go. Of course you also have to be sure that the quilt doesn't get wet while the quilting is in progress.

Thanks for all of the suggestions! This board is amazing!!

My machine does have a basting stitch. I think is about 2 inches apart. Is that too big? Maybe it is ajustable....

This is exactly how I was thinking of doing it!