Quilt Basting for FMQ Tutorial Needed
 

All of my FMQ quilts to date have been in the 18" x 24" range. I am now going to do a quilt at 58" x 40". I am worried about the backing folding, bunching up and just plain being out of control. So I am looking for a good tutorial on how to baste this size of quilt for FMQ. I will be using a Singer 301 to do the quilting. I do not have a table that I can clip to or tape to. The one that I have (my good dining room table) is usable to lay it all out on and pin? it together on.

Julie

I spray baste all my quilts. After the first one or two that I made, my quilt mentor told me about 505 basting spay and I have never looked back! I've used it on all sizes from small to king size without any problem. Pins...I don't think so :-)

Do you spray both the top and the bottom? Can you do it peicemeal? i have neither the table size nor the floor space to lay it all out. Or do you spray the batting? I purchased some spray but am reluctant to startl without a little more direction.

Julie

we had this discussion in the car on our road trip today... spray the batting, and very lightly

I have only spray basted one quilt, so take my experience with a grain of salt.

If your knees will take it you can use the floor. Lay your backing out and secure it down. Lay your batting on it to get it placed and sized correctly. Start at one end, and roll the batting up to about the halfway point of the quilt. Spray the backing, then carefully unroll your batting. Go to the other side and do the same thing. After that is set, lay your top on the batting and use the same procedure.

I know you can spray baste in sections with your table that is smaller than your quilt. You would start in the center, then work in sections. Hopefully someone with more knowledge will offer more detailed instruction there.

The quilt I did this way is here: http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...t-t245620.html

Let us know what you decide, and post your finished pictures!

Darren

Lots of us use Elmer's washable school to baste quilts for FMQ. I have used this on about 8 quilts. If you use the search function you will get lots of threads on it and I think at least one tutorial. I also baste bigger quilts on my dining room table. No clamps or tape needed.

Your bed might be large enough to do the spray basting. Just place a large flat sheet on top to catch any overspray. A yardstick helps to smooth out the top/backing. Be sure to do a "search" on spray basting tutorials here before doing it. It can be very difficult or very easy, depending on whether or not you use a good technique for it.

I pin baste mine. My tables aren't large enough either. Some people say you can push 2 tables together, but I can still get down on the floor for short periods of time, so I masking tape it to my kitchen floor. I get the extra sticky kind so it doesn't come undone (other people do fine with frog tape or painters' tape, but I have no luck with them). I use the bent-angle safety pins & pin a fist's width apart, starting with the center of the quilt & working my way out, smoothing as I go.

I find Elmer's is too stiff for me to comfortably work with & I don't have a good space to use the Spray Baste It. The other option you might consider if you plan to make more of the larger sized quilts & have a bit of vertical storage space in your garage is to buy a piece of particle board at Home Depot/Lowe's. You can put it on a bed, or if you use padding, on top of your dining table. They will cut it to size for you (some stores charge me $0.25-0.50 per cut, but it's well worth it). Then, you can tape onto that surface. Particle Board also works nice as a design wall (that's what I use it for). I am thinking of pulling out the staples & changing to Velcro to attach the felt. That way I can have it do double-duty as a design wall & a basting surface. :)

Tutorial from Sewing with Nancy: http://www.nancysnotions.com/categor...uilt+layers.do

I also always spray baste. Luckily, I live in a community with a large "lodge" building, and can utilize one of the rooms and several long tables together when I am sandwiching a quilt. I've started doing it this way: Lay the batting out on the table first and get all of the wrinkles out of it. It helps sometimes to use the blue painters tape to secure the batting. I then, before spraying, put the backing on the batting, positioned just as I want it to be. Then I fold back 1/2 of the backing, spray about 1/3 of the exposed batting, and begin smoothing the backing onto the batting from the fold and towards the end of the batting. When the backing is covering the sprayed part, I spray another 1/3 and continue. If the quilt is wide I normally have a friend help me, and often use a long, smooth, lightweight piece of wooden trim to insure that the backing is moving down the quilt all at the same time. Once that half is complete I repeat the process on the other end. When the backing is securely, and flatly on the quilt batting I carefully turn the whole operation over so that the batting is on top, and repeat the process again with the quilt top. Since I started doing it this way the whole operation takes much less time, results in much less frustration, and normally results in a quilt sandwich free of wrinkles.

One of the best things I bought is several folding tables. The ones that fold up in the middle. They are easy to store and move. Two together is plenty for a large quilt. I found them at Lowe's.

I use Elmer's School glue. I add a tablespoon of water to the small bottle and it flows out. I apply it to the batting. I use to take a paintbrush and brush out any thick globs but realized I did that when I smooth the quilt top and backing. When I first started I put tiny dots of glue on the batting, now I squeeze squiggles and lines. I have no problem fmq with the glue but learned to not put glue right on the edge where I'll be hand sewing the binding.