Do any of you laq's stabilize a quilt before quilting it? If so how and why do you do it?

Yes, Patty, I do stabilize.

When doing custom I will do the "bones" of the quilt first - SID between the borders and around the blocks before doing any of the fill work. This helps you keep the individual elements of the quilt - and the entire quilt itself - square and straight. Then I go back and do the designs or fill work.

In the areas I am NOT quilting, I will baste - either with pins or a large basting stitch, until I go back and do the fill work in them to keep them from shifting or puckering.

That makes sense. I wonder if it works for hand quilting?

Sometimes I stabilize with water soluble thread. I've done this on my DSM and on the longarm.

Is funny you ask this today. I was getting ready to start a thread on this same topic. I was watching at The quilt Show the free lessons by Linda Taylor and I never knew that long armers stabilize the quilt around the edges and around the blocks before quilting. It got me thinking about stabilizing one before quilting on my domestic machine. It was a smaller wall hanging. I made sure my layers were flat and pinned well. I then stitched around the borders and around the blocks. I quilted, and kept thinking that it would bunch at some point. To my surprise, it never did. It is actually one of my best. The corners don't curl. I love it.