Pin basting and/or spray basting
 

I was curious to how many of you pin baste, spray baste, or both? Do you hand quilt or machine quilt? What are the advantages of the basting method you use? Also, if you strictly spray baste, is there a need to "stabilize the quilt"? Your input is very appreciated.

Neither. Elmers School Glue

I still do it the old fashioned way - with curved safety pins.

I use spray basting, but with a temporary basting spray. I still use a few straight pins with pinmores, usually only 10 of these and then I machine quilt. Works really well.
I do always wash my quilts when I'm done putting on the binding because I like the crinkle look.

I spray baste to get the sandwich together. But I also pin because when I move the quilt around to do the quilting, it always moves.

I spray baste. On a larger quilt I will usually add safety pins around the border (but spaced pretty far apart) just to make sure the edges don't start coming apart. I machine quilt.

I've done both but get better results with spray basting - no tucks on the backing. It's also easier to quilt since there are no pins to remove as I quilt.

Hand or longarm baste!

I thread baste because as a general rule, I'm a hand quilter but I am slowly learning how to machine quilt and have used fusible batting which worked very well for me (holding the sandwich together, not fmq, lol). I did order some basting spray which I think will work better for me.

Elmers Glue? Can you expound on the use?

DITTO I do the same :)

I have done both all pins or all spray baste, and both. But I recently got one of those little guns that shoot a super thin plastic thing through the whole quilt. Sorta like what hold a tag to knew clothes. Only much much smaller. I loved it. No shifting and stopping to pull out safety pins or mess from over spray. The hardest part was going over the quilt and finding all the little things to get them out. Silly me didn't use a contrast color.

when i am working on something small i am going to quilt on my domestic-instead of the long arm i thread baste- i also thread baste if hand quilting- i do not like the sprays- have not had alot of luck with them and find dealing with the pins is much more time consuming and well--- a pain, so i thread up a big needle & baste my quilt the way my grandmother taught me oh so long ago- it has always worked well for me & is very easy/quick to remove---with no sticky oversprays or hard pins to deal with

If I am hand quilting I pin baste, if I am machine quilting I spray baste with a few pins around the edge. Hope this helps. Keep trying different methods till you find what what suits you. No doubt in the not too distant future a new method will come up that is great for some and not for others.

I'm a thread baster, don't really have anywhere to do a spray basting. I am a handquilter and it does use up all that embroidery floss that I used to use when i did counted cross-stitch.

I just started spray basting and I am loving it. I got so tired of my hands looking like I raked them thru a blackberry bush and pin covers weren't working. Spray basting is so easy to do and my sandwich stay in place!!

Spray baste....always.....I use Dritz and have great results.....I wash at the end to get rid of any dirt, chemicals, starch and to make those little oops become visible, so the basting washes out anyway.....spray basting is by far the easiest way for me (no more sore knees from pinning on the floor) ....I spread out an old flat sheet on the bed to catch overspray and do it there.....best tip I can give for basting spray is to spray lightly - helps prevent needle gumming and it really doesn't take that much to keep all the layers together.

I've always hand basted with the quilt taped to the floor. Then I discovered (courtesy of QB) the Sharon Shamber video of using boards to hand baste, so I've done my last two quilts with that method (only difference being I have always basted with water soluble thread). Then, also courtesy of QB, I found info about spray basting. I happened to have a can of Duro All Purpose Adhesive spray (which is NOT the 505 spray that everyone recommends, but I was only doing a 12" practice sandwich to practice a quilt motif) that I use to stick my hand drawn quilting motif templates to the quilt, and I tried that on some practice quilt sandwiches and I liked it!! It adhered well, but was easy enough to pull up to reposition if needed, didn't gum the machine, and washed out.

If I ever spray baste a large quilt though I'm going to have to either take it to my husbands shop, or wait for a day without wind. I don't like the idea of using spray inside the house in large quantities that a large quilt would require.

The advantage of hand basting with water soluble thread using the boards is that you get a very straight quilt, no puckers at all, nice and tight (but not too tight), you can do it sitting down (yippee!!), and you don't have to pull pins out or clip threads as you quilt (because I use water soluble - the threads disappear when I wash the quilt). Once in a while my foot will catch a thread, in which case I will snip it, but I don't have to the pull the threads through. The disadvantage is still the fact that I have to hand baste (I hate hand work).

The advantage of spray basting is all of the above with the exception that there are no threads to get in the way, and you don't have to hand baste. You can baste a quilt in half the time (or less). The disadvantage is the space it requires to hang a quilt that large to baste, and the smell of using that much spray indoors, and the fact that you have to cover the surrounding area with newspaper to catch over spray. If you could hang the quilt on the side of a barn on a windless day ... PERFECT.

Have never, and will never use pins. I don't like the idea of stopping and removing pins every so many inches while quilting.

I used to hand baste using Sharon Schamber's method with boards. The last several large quilts I've done by spray basting with 505 using the same method. The boards help to layer my quilt evenly across a couple of folding tables, and the spray is soooo much faster, and easier on the fingers! It is a bit messy, but even with cleanup time, it's so much faster. I love the way the quilt sandwich stays together for FMQ on my domestic machine. Even the extra large queen size quilts do not shift even a little bit with all the wrestling around to quilt them!

My daughter was here last week and we spray basted 2 queen size and 3 throw/twin size easily in a day. (We even had time for a trip to the LQS.)

I'm interested in the Elmer's Glue method, too. Please tell us more. texasmom

I read an article abouut using Elmers gluue stcik, how does it work?

Hand quilt. Safety pins.

i hand quilt on a Q-Snap floor frame. I pin my quilts using safety pins. I put quilt on frame,and smooth both bottom and top so no wrinkles or folds and removing pins within quilt framed area as I do so. each time I move quilt to new area, I repeat the process of smoothing and removing the pins.

I use spray basting, it works for me :-)

I had only pin basted for years... and always had issues with tucks on the back. It seemed if I used more pins the tucks just got smaller.. but still had issues with tucks. Once I discovered spray... no looking back as I had no tucks. My only issue is the cost. Pins can be reused , but spray is a constant expense. I like 505 but have had very good luck with the Dritz sold at Jo'ann. I do use a few pins at the perimeter just to prevent lifting when I am moving the quilt around.

I pin baste. I have tried spray basting and am not happy with the results. In addition, just like PAM, you breathe that crap in. I do use it for applique to make my pieces stay put until I secure them with basting stitches. But, I do that outside now.

Your mileage may vary. Most of my quilts are large lap quilts or larger.

CoyoteQuilts was kind enough to explain how she uses Elmers glue to baste quilts in a previous thread. Here is a link:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...t180790-6.html

The glue stick is not used to baste quilt layers together. It is used a lot for applique, for sticking bindings in place before sewing, etc., but not for basting quilts. I posted a link just above this to a description of how to use Elmer's "washable glue" to baste a quilt. Be aware that there is a huge difference between Elmer's washable school glue, glue sticks, and Elmer's adhesive spray. They are 3 very different products even if all made by Elmer's.

I usually quilt on my longarm and don't find it necessary to do anything except add a few pins at the top and on the sides as I go.

I mostly pin. Have used 505 spray and love it but it is not freely available here.

I spray baste with 505 and machine quilt, never a problem, even with large queen/king size quilts. I do sometimes pin the corners of a large quilt. Never have any shifting or tucks and so far I've quilted everything on my Janome 6600.

Thank you all for the responses! I have a lot of trouble with achiness in my neck; shoulders, back, hands and such, so I think I'm going to try the spray basting for now. I was just concerned that if I spray basted only, I may still need to pin. I am going to TRY to machine quilt my first one here soon. As always, VERY APPRECIATIVE to this board!! Thanks again and wish me luck! :)

I also use the curved pins to baste the quilts in preparation for machine quilting.

Good luck! I also have problems with my back, neck, shoulders. What I found prevents these problems for me is quilting standing up. I place my machine on my cutting table. Also had dh make me a styrofoam "surround" for my machine so that I have a large flat surface to work on; however, that is secondary to simply quilting standing up. I do wear my good indoor shoes and stand on carpeting to do this. Works much better for me than quilting sitting down. You might want to try it.

Thank you Prism99; I will definitely try that! :)

I spray baste with the cheapest I can find. Sometimes, on very large quilts, I machine baste along the sashing lines in order to stabilise. The advantages are that I don't get stuck, it is quick, there is no bunching, I don't sew over pins accidentally and there is no stopping of the rhythm of my quilting.

I spray baste, then iron to make the adhesion permanent. Works like a charm.

I have pin basted and spray basted - I much prefer the spray basting - takes less time and it's easier on the fingers! I have hand quilted small quilts - I usually machine quilt.

I have more luck with thread basting although I have used pins

I pin baste larger than baby quilt sized. I actually don't care for the spray baste. It seems to "gunk up" my needle. I have the can of spray and will use it up but not likely buy more. It would be that this is an older product and the newer ones many be better.