Sandwiching quilts
 

I would like some suggestions on how other folks sandwich their quilt top, batting and backing. I always manage to get a few wrinkles and that frustrates me, so I know there has to be easier way to do this. I'm too old to crawl around on the floor anymore, so any helpful hints, suggestions would be appreciated!

I do mine on the kitchen table. I wash table down first, just in case. My friends and I sometimes put two of those 6-foot folding tables together and use that. It works very well for larger quilts. One of my friends has even used a ping pong table. Her kids don't use it anymore so she removed the net and it works great. Have you tried the spray basting method yet. Since I have begun using a spray basting product, I get fewer wrinkles. Also, I will iron my batting or toss it in the dryer to fluff to get out the wrinkles before I use it. Hope this helps!

I use the basting spray, too. I like to iron it lightly as I go, and I think it really helps keep wrinkles out.

If you have a long table, this is a relaxing, completely non-stressful way to baste, and never a wrinkle in sight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhwNylePFAA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_EjBGz5vGQ

I use any table I have and Elmer's washable school glue. Very quick and easy. And nary a wrinkle.

You might check around your area to find a Longarmer who will baste the quilt for you. The cost is quite affordable and it could very well be worth it to your poor knees and back. :)

http://www.ooipvoi.ru/abcnews/jnke_K...all_Tabla.html

This is my new go-to method now for large quilts. I used to hang them, but for super kings and my old body it doesn't work anymore. * the link will come up with a map of the USA, just scroll down!
I have not needed the large binder clips - my arthritic hands can't use them anyway! I use the black and orange tipped workshop clips but you can even use pins. The "tutor" calls skewers "skurrs" which provides some mirth, but the idea is a good one!

I watched this video a while back and was tickled by her saying "skurrs" and then at the end I think she said her children corrected her? or she said her children said she was saying it incorrectly? Anyway, good info if you want to go that route.

I don't have any room to sandwich a big quilt so the last one I did I took down my design wall (flannel backed tablecloth tacked to the wall) and used the wall. I used painters tape to tape the backing to the wall, then the batting, then pinned the top to the backing/batting. It worked great. No wrinkles or puckers as everything laid flat against the wall.

Cari

This is a struggle for me too so I will be watching this thread and checking out links. I use my living room floor and its getting harder and harder. I like the basting spray but I think it cost adds up for me. I have tried the school glue one time with luck. I just bought a gallon jug of the glue from Amazon and I am going to use this method the next few times and see how I like it.

When whatever I am making is a bit on the larger side, I call ahead and go to one of my LQS's and they let me use their tables, as many as it takes. Since I go to them often, they are more than happy to help.

I use an old drop leaf table that I've elevated with plastic bins. I use office clips (big quilts) or painters tape to hold the backing down and add the batting and then the top. Then I can pin. Cindy Needham taught me this method. It's much easier than the floor.

This is the way I prefer.

I use 505 spray and I love it! If it's a throw or smaller quilt, I do it on my cutting table. If it's a larger quilt, I do it on my living room floor (vacuuming first though). Pinning was too difficult for me as I found too many puckers and was sticking my self with the pins as I quilted. After the 20th prick, I switched to the 505 spray and I've never looked back. 😍

I use to go to my LQS and borrow their classroom when it was available. You probably need to just slightly tighten your backing but you will know instantly when you have the backing too tight because when you release your quilt from the clips, the top will be slightly puffy since the backing has gone back to it's original shape. I use to run my hand lightly on the backing to make sure there is no shifting before I laid the batting down.

I also use the "skurrs" method....stumbled upon the you tube; chuckled all the way through listening to her sons narratives and then tried it out on my big quilt......loved it......and think fondly of my skurrs often!!!

That's it, I'm calling them "skurrs" from now on!!

My sister and I go to our church. They have at least 6 of those long white plastic tables, and then I tape the back to the tables, and then smooth the batting and top and pin.

If it's small, I tape it to the kitchen counter & thread baste it (in that half zig zag pattern). If it's larger (crib size & up), I tape it to a smooth floor. Before I had a smooth floor (just a tiny galley kitchen & tinier bath, with carpeting everywhere else), I bought a piece of particle board with a laminate finish on it & would lay it on the carpeting when needed & tape to that.

I always tape down my backing. I get wrinkles otherwise. You just want to smooth it flat & then tape -- don't pull or you'll get dog ears for your quilt corners & anywhere else you tape. Masking tape works best; painter's tape is usually okay, too, but I had trouble with it a couple of times so I don't use the blue painter's tape anymore. Lay the batting, then the quilt top gently on top of the backing & smooth with your hand. Then, you want to draw an imaginary line down the middle vertically & horizontally. Start pinning in the center of your quilt & work your way out to the edge horizontally, then vertically, then fill in the rest of that quadrant working your way out from the center, gently smoothing any wrinkles toward the edge as you go. When you finish the first quadrant, go on to the next & repeat until finished. Those curved safety pins really made a difference for me.

I personally have found that when I pin all the way to the edge, my pins get stuck on my extension table, so I have started thread basting the edges of my quilts, rather than pinning them. I really love the results so much that I tried a small wall hanging with thread basting & think I may just switch over to that entirely. I can use straight pins to hold things in place while thread basting & it works great. So much easier to remove than safety pins.

I've always done mine like this, only I don't use the skurrs. I just kind of eyeball the center. At one point I put masking tape in the center of the table but then decided I'm not that worried about getting it right in the center anyway. I don't use clips anymore though, since I started glue basting. But before I used glue I would clip the backing onto the table, put the batting on, put the top on, reclip, and pin. Then I'd move the whole works over a bit and do that part, etc etc. One time I tried doing it on the floor (with glue) and my legs and knees were so sore by the time I was done I decided the allure of being able to lay it all out flat wasn't worth it.

Now that I glue baste, I put the batting down first and glue the backing to it, turn the whole shebang over, then glue the top to the batting. But I haven't done a quilt that is big enough to hang very much over both ends of my table yet so I'm not sure how hard that will be to glue baste.

I use the Sharon Schamber method. I do take my quilts up to the church where i can use the tables pulled together. They also have an office chair on wheels that i roll side to side as i baste it.

if you hand quilt, be careful not to get blobs of glue - you can't quilt thru those.

I use my cutting table. I have one like they sell at JAF that the sides fold down. It's never collapsed, though! I also use the big office binder clips. I do the traditional backing fabric wrong side up; smooth and clip all around the edge of the table. Lay down batting, smooth and re-clip and same with the top. I do this regardless of quilt size. If it's big (and they usually are - it's rare that I make anything less than bed-size quilts), I center everything as best possible and start in the middle. When the center section of the quilt is all pinned or thread-basted, I then just slide the whole sandwich side to side/end to end until the entire piece is basted. It can be a bit tedious walking around the table that often but it beats the heck out of crawling around on the floor. Besides, I don't have that much open floor or wall space anywhere in the house to be able to do things differently.

I layer my quilts at my quilt work-day once a month. We meet at a library and put the long tables together and go from there. I iron my backing well, starch lightly and then tape it to the table with painters tape smoothing out all of the wrinkles. I then use spray baste to add my batting, again smoothing out all hints of wrinkles. Repeat with the top. I have had absolutely no problems with spray baste. For really large quilts I very lightly pin but generally no pins at all. The time and frustration I save with the spray baste far out weighs the cost. I also watch for sale of the baste or 50% coupons. I can do at least two mid-large sized quilts per can and often 3. For $7 - 8 bucks that is a bargain in time and picking out wrinkles. I would give it a try!

I have watched a couple of her other videos - she is the one who created the "Edge to Edge Quilting on your Embroidery Machine". She is very good - and fun! I had not seen this particular video - so thanks for putting it here. Very helpful.

My mom does this. Works well!

Love her big table. I sandwich on my "good" dining room table with all the leaves in. Pretty much the same way but I don't use the skurrs. Love the South!

I have a different approach to sandwiching. I think I have tried all of the suggestions, but wasn't happy with them. I don't have a LQS or church to use, so I came upon this idea, and so far, I am loving it. I have a spare bed that is pretty tall and also a spare twin size mattress. I just lay the twin size mattress on the end of the bed and pin my backing across the top, letting it accumulate on the floor. I then spray and lay my batting on top, also accumulate on the floor. Sometimes the quilt is wider than the mattress, but can be moved over and finished. I then spray the batting and add the top. When it is all hand smoothed down, I make a roll on the top and leave it onto the bed, and fold over the part that is pulled up, to start again. I continue until all is sprayed. I finish rolling it and I have taken it to my ironing board to press, but not always. I don't get wrinkles and it is ready to put in my frame. I do hand quilting and this works perfectly, without crawling on the floor. If I have to crawl, it is across the mattress, which is easy to do. Hope this makes sense.

I use a plastic folding table and drape my quilt over it, and glue it in sections with Elmer's. As long as the area I'm gluing is nice and flat it doesn't matter if the rest is rumply. I press briefly with a warm iron as I finish each section so the glue will grab on well enough not to move as I do other sections. I do each side separately - I put batting down and glue the backing on first, let that dry an hour or so, then flip it over and repeat with the top. Then I usually let the whole thing sit overnight to be sure all glue is dry before I quilt it together.

It works amazingly well, and my knees are so much happier now that I'm not crawling around on the floor. I pretty much don't get any puckers anymore at all, which I was still getting with every other technique I tried.

I do large panels and QAYG...that way I can use a walking foot to quilt...my panels are about 25" square and 6 will make a lap size quilt or just add 3 more and have a full size. I like Modern quilting and with only a domestic machine this is the only way I can accomplish it. I spray baste the panels into a sandwich and rarely even need pins. It works great for me. I am also too old to be crawling around on the floor and it hurts your back.

I tape down the backing with painters tape, then smooth the batting out before placing the quilt top. I have not had a problem. I pin baste but on occasion will spray baste or actually, depending on the quilt, I will do both.

Sandwiching
 

I like the Sharon Schaumbers method. Found ,olding on sale at Home Depot. Think I spent like $4, it works so well. I use safety pins to baste. I have MS and find it easier.

I use my long cutting table, binder clips and school glue with good results. Having a harder time using binder clips with my hand problems.

I use a ping pong table and a method similar to Sharon Schamber. I lay my batting on the table, then my backing - right sides up. Then I use the board to roll the backing half way up. Spray the batting with a temporary adhesive and carefully unroll the backing. Repeat on the other side. Trim the batting even with the backing and turn so the batting is on top, backing on the bottom. Carefully lay out and center the top-right sides up. Roll on the board half way, spray, unroll and repeat on the opposite side. I never have wrinkles and can do a quilt very quickly this way. My DH very kindly cut me different lengths of MDF at 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8 feet at about 3-4 inches wide with a nail hole on one end. They hang vertically off a stud in the basement.

I use washable school glue to baste my quilts. By doing this I lay down the bat first and then the back over that. Fold back the back half way and squiggle the glue around on the batting. All you need is a thin stream in a zig zag pattern for it to hold. I then smooth my back over the bat. I put the glue on the batting for two reasons: first so it doesn't soak through the fabric onto my surface and secondly it is heavier than the fabric so it doesn't move around and wrinkle like fabric does as you're working with it.
I let the glued area sit for a bit and then move the whole thing to another area that needs gluing, fold the back back, glue the batting and smooth the back over it. When this is completely dry I flip it over and do the same for the front of the quilt. I never have any puckers or wrinkles this way.

I had to piece a back recently with a contrasting fabric since I didn't have enough of the fabric I had planned for the backing. I wanted it to be perfectly straight with the front as it would show up once I quilted it if the pieced part seam line was not straight. I sandwiched the back on like above and then taped straws along along the seam line with some painters tape. The straws created a hump so I could feel where the seam line was when I flipped the back/batting over and then lined my top up with that straight. It worked wonderfully and when I quilted the quilt the straight line quilting lines lined up perfectly distance wise from the pieced part. A trick I learned somewhere but can't remember where but thought I'd pass it along.

i have basted. Pinned. Sprayed and pinned. Pinned and basted. So far basting or pinned then basted has worked the best.

I use the island in my kitchen --but I only do twin or smaller. The bigger ones I send to a long armer. I also tape the backing down, then lay the batting, then the top and pin baste. Before closing all the pins I check the back to see if I have obvious tucks or folds. For me this is the least favorite of the tasks for a quilt. Will put it off forever!!

I bought myself one of those tables that the sides fold down. The clips that I bought fit just perfect over the edge of the table. I see this table on sale a lot! Of course going to a church works great also.

http://www.joann.com/adjustable-home...Btable&start=2

My church has some of those long white tables too. I think the next one I have to sandwich will be done on those tables.

I did my first two on the floor. My knees have balked at that so now I lay the layers on my bed. I take everything off but the mattress cover. Then I use a little spray baste. It's been working but I think the next one I will take to church to the fellowship hall and use our long white tables.

I have hung the sandwich from a rod hung in the garage to make sure it is hanging straight sometimes. Otherwise, I have two pieces of plywood about 4x feet x 6 feet and I have two ironing boards. I lay the boards on the ironing boards and stretch the quilt sandwich across the boards and use "C" clamps from the hardware store to hold the sandwich tight. Move it when you have basted the surface. I have not yet used glue but I have a quantity of it waiting to try.