Basting troubleshooting
#1
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Connecticut
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I was spray basting a quilt by using the pool noodle method. I thought I had everything lined up nicely, nice boarders on all sides.
I got to the last few inches of the quilt, and due to the quilt top skewing a little bit, the backing is about an inch shorter on that side. Do I undo all my hard work, and re-baste it. (Due to small space and trying to figure out how to baste, it took about 3 hrs), or just quilt as is and trim it after to math. If it matters, the quilt is a jelly roll race.
I got to the last few inches of the quilt, and due to the quilt top skewing a little bit, the backing is about an inch shorter on that side. Do I undo all my hard work, and re-baste it. (Due to small space and trying to figure out how to baste, it took about 3 hrs), or just quilt as is and trim it after to math. If it matters, the quilt is a jelly roll race.
#2
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Join Date: May 2021
Posts: 123
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Do you still have an overhang of batting and backing on all sides of at least a few inches if you are hand quilting or FMQ on a domestic machine. If not, I would redo. If you are going to get it quilted on a long arm, I would make sure you have enough batting and backing overhang as they require.
#4
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Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: North Idaho
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I would take the mostly-basted sandwich over to my machine and stitch on an extra bit of fabric to the backing to make it longer. you don't have to undo or unroll anything as long as you have the space to maneuver the rolls. Then once that is stitched on, you will have a long enough backing and you can finish basting.
Of course you could not do that and just trim it to size when you are done, but that depends on how much it will upset you in the end.
I would be hesitant to un-baste it all, being that you would stretch and distort the fabric, rip the batting, loosen seams and threads, etc.
Of course you could not do that and just trim it to size when you are done, but that depends on how much it will upset you in the end.
I would be hesitant to un-baste it all, being that you would stretch and distort the fabric, rip the batting, loosen seams and threads, etc.
#5
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Connecticut
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Do you still have an overhang of batting and backing on all sides of at least a few inches if you are hand quilting or FMQ on a domestic machine. If not, I would redo. If you are going to get it quilted on a long arm, I would make sure you have enough batting and backing overhang as they require.
I would take the mostly-basted sandwich over to my machine and stitch on an extra bit of fabric to the backing to make it longer. you don't have to undo or unroll anything as long as you have the space to maneuver the rolls. Then once that is stitched on, you will have a long enough backing and you can finish basting.
Of course you could not do that and just trim it to size when you are done, but that depends on how much it will upset you in the end.
I would be hesitant to un-baste it all, being that you would stretch and distort the fabric, rip the batting, loosen seams and threads, etc.
Of course you could not do that and just trim it to size when you are done, but that depends on how much it will upset you in the end.
I would be hesitant to un-baste it all, being that you would stretch and distort the fabric, rip the batting, loosen seams and threads, etc.
#6
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Join Date: May 2017
Location: Sunny Florida
Posts: 4,422
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Considering all the time and effort to make the quilt front, I would certainly re-position the sandwich layers and re-baste. Mark all the center positions on the top, sides, and bottom of all the layers. Line up the center marks. Baste the top half and then baste the bottom half.
I use a technique like this for putting all the layers together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnke_KzeTI8
I use a technique like this for putting all the layers together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnke_KzeTI8
#7
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Join Date: Jul 2019
Location: northern minnesota
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You have a lot of suggestions. I would also ask myself "What is the purpose of this quilt?" That might give you the answer to how much time you want to take. If the quilt is going to be used as a picnic quilt, I probably would just stitch a bit more to the backing or maybe even just trim it off and bind. If this quilt is going to a special grandchild, I just might take it apart and baste it again. I actually have done both. I am not sure how much bigger the backing is than the front, but I always try to make my backing on anything bigger than a table topper at least 4 inch bigger on all side which makes it 8 inches wider and longer than the top. Basting will eat up some backing sometimes but the actual quilting takes up even more. I keep the part of the backing that I trim off for scrap piecing but sometimes I find I have enough of the trimmed off backing to actually make the binding for the quilt. If I have extra backing fabric, I may even leave it on as that gives me a bigger piece of scrap fabric after trimming. I have a long arm so that helps a lot,I have even loaded all of the fabric I have on the longarm and used the same backing for another smaller project.
Last edited by sewingpup; 04-21-2022 at 05:50 AM.
#8
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I made this quilt, to make an easy quilt to practice my free motion quilting on the sewing machine. That is the sole purpose of the quilt.
#9
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Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Houston, TX
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That's a hard one. Being that something skewed, I'd be wary of just quilting it. I'd be concerned about what happens when you wash it. I've always been leary of the board quilting/noodle quilting because I can see that happening. This is the method I've used https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPaIzuoY6Bg I've used it on up to a 60 x 90 quilt with no problems. It might be something to try next time.