Sandwiching
 

When I am sandwiching my quilt, do I start in the center?

Bottom goes on table wrong side up and tapped tautly.
Batting on top smoothed gently with finger tips.
Top on top right side up. Pin or tack from the centre.
I also smooth out from centre when glueing.

This is my least favorite thing to do in quilting. I just recently started sandwiching a quilt 105 X 105, what a pain. In desperation I hung it on a wall and let gravity help, if the weather was better a clothsline would work. The layers are almost even at one end. That's where I start basting and work all the way to the other end. The backing and the batting are three or more inches larger than the top (safety zone). Then when I start quilting I work from the center. There are a lot of different ways to do this but this works for me. I envy the long armers more for their frames, that eliminate this step, then for their machines.

Emma -- many long armers will baste a quilt for you. I hate this part of quilting also even with baby or lap sized quilts.

Linda in MO

There are so many different ways to sandwich a quilt, it's hard to answer your question. Depends on whether you are spray basting, thread basting or pin basting; depends on whether you are working on a table smaller than your quilt, whether you are basting in a frame, whether you are using Sharon Schamber's board method.

Linda, thanks for the info. I wonder how much they would charge.

I use Sharon Schamber's board method.

I agree that Sharon Schamber's method looks like it would work really well but a 105 inch board would be hard to handle, let alone two.

I just used Sharon Shamber's method for a queen sized quilt. The boards were tough to handle, so I had my husband help me. It turned out fine, but it would have been difficult without help.

I keep thinking there has to be an inexpensive fix to the sandwiching problem. Like a box with gooves for the rollers but havn't come up with anything. Anybody have any ideas?