Question for L/A's
 

How important is the basting stitch on your L/A machine? Do you use it often?

I never use the basting stitch. I prefer to set the stitch length myself.

Every now & then I have a hand quilter customer come over & have me baste their quilt sandwich for them-- its pretty important then. Sometimes I have a project I need to baste. It is nice to have when I need it

Some machines you can do one stitch at a time. Stitch ... move the machine ... stitch ... move the machine - so in effect you are basting. A lot of quilters will use this, or a "basting stitch" if their machine has one, to secure the quilt top to the batting and backing before they start quilting.

So yes ... I would say that some type of basting stitch, either automatic or manual, is necessary.

I don't use the basting stitch. I'm not even sure my machine does it. I only quilt for myself and close friends, not as a business.

Never used it.

The only time I have basted was when I knew I would be travelling back and forth with vertical designs.

Nope. Never use it.

I use a long stitch to baste the 3 layers together at the top of the quilt to begin. I also baste down each side to stabilize the quilt as I advance the quilt.

Me too, this is what I do a lot of the time.

I tried to baste one time and it pulled everything out of shape. I never tried it again.

My machine doesn't have a basting stitch as such and is all manual action. I float my batting and tops, so sometimes will use a regular stitch across the top of the quilt, but don't find that even manual basting down the sides works that well for me. It tends to skew my tops a bit sideways. I quilt only for me. And am a beginner, just doing pantos.

Yes all the time! I use the basting stitch to stitch down my top along the sides and top. It is easy to remove stitches and it is more forgiving when borders are a bit wavy. I set mine to 3 stitches an inch.

Same thing happened to me.

I use it everytime I quilt. When I load the quilt, I baste down the right side. I use a regular stitch for the top and left side, but the basting stitch on the right allows me to smooth out any fullness that might accumulate as I go left to right. (Hope this makes sense.)

Me too, Gemrm and Texassimsjome. Since my Gammill has no stitch regulator, I just slow down the stitches per second and bast that way.

I have robotics on mine and have programmed a basting pattern to go across and down the sides. Just have to adjust the length, hit the baste button and the way I go.