Basting with Elmer's Washable School Glue
 

I tried this method as I was looking for a more economical method of basting similar to using 505.
Elmer's Washable School by the gallon is $14.00 - cheap I should be able to do at least 18 quilts with a gallon of glue vs 505 in the red can $13.00 a can and I can get maybe 3 quilts per can.
Read on and see if this method is for you.
First, I put my Warm and Natural Batting in the dryer for a bit to try and soften the wrinkles. The I spread it out on my ping pong table (we never play ping pong on it, I use it only for quilting purposes)
Then I spread my backing on the top of the batting. I arranged it so that there was batting showing underneath all around the edges. I smoothed it all with my hands to ensure that there were no wrinkles in the batting.
Then I folded half of the backing towards the center of the quilt, (like folding a piece of paper in half on the long side of the paper.)
Now, holding the smaller bottle of glue over the batting at about 18 inches high I began to squeeze out the glue. With constant pressure I swirled the glue about 18 inches back and forth until I had about an 18 inch square swirl of glue. It dotted and did not lie in a straight line. I did this the entire length of the quilt.
Next, for the smoothing of the backing to the batting I started in the center of the the length of the backing and gentle lifted and pulled it towards me. I then smoothed it down with my hand. Then I did the same thing towards the left of me until I reached the end of the row and then I did the same thing on the right side. repeating the process for another 18 inch lengthwise row until that half of the backing was glued on.
I made sure there were no wrinkles and hand pressed the backing to the batting.
I repeated the same actions on the other side of the table with the glue onto the batting, then hand pressing it down. The I let it dry overnight. I positioned the quilt so that the center line was on the table's middle so that there was even pressure on the quilt as it dried.

I glued right up to the edge of the quilt! When I FMQ, I work the FMQing around the edge of the quilt and quilt into the middle of the quilt. The exact opposite of most folks. I read that if you quilt was securely basted it didn't matter where you started and ended :)
I repeated the glue swirling and hand pressing for the quilt top. There may be some ripples on the batting, but once the glue and hand pressing was completed the weight and pressure flattened them right out. I let it all dry overnight once again and FMQed the next day.
I took the quilt to the laundry mat and washed and dried it there, all the glue came out and it looks great.
If I use Elmer's I will have more money for fabric :)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]382299[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]382300[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]382301[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]382302[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]382303[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]382304[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]382305[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]382306[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]382307[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]382308[/ATTACH]

This is great. Thanks for the Tut. Where do you find the school glue by the gallon?

I went to your blog and saw your pictorial tutorial there... Nice job!!! http://californiaquilting.blogspot.com/

I bought it by the gallon at Amazon. We are not allowed to post about our blogs - so I hope we don't get removed!

You didn't post about your blog; I did!!!

Okay you are right lolrofl

Glad you had a good experience with it ... I didn't. I looked through the pic's on your blog and you had the same glue "gobs" that I did - about the same size. Well ... I finished quilting mine today and my machine did NOT like going through the glue gobs and each time I hit one my thread broke. I also noticed that it was gumming up my needle.

Back to hand basting for me :(

Wow, so sorry to hear that, I did spread the blobs out with my hands when I hand pressed the fabric to the batting but I did 4 big quilts with the same needle.

Thanks for your clear instructions. I am working on 12 place mats for my daughter for Christmas and used glue for the first time to baste those. I wondered how it would work for a larger project and now I know! The only problem I have is that I self-bind (pull the backing over to the front, fold down, decorative stitch to secure) and had some places where the glue holding the batting to the backing was a bit hard to work around. The fabric was also a bit stiff in places as I pulled the backing over.

I've been spray basting for quite a while and have about ruined the spare bedroom I used. I've been spraying basting on top of a double bed, but the overspray has made a mess. I'll try the glue on my next larger project, but will use it for sure on small ones.

I have glue basted a lot of smaller projects & wall hangings. I have always used my iron to smooth & dry at the same time. I love being able to use Elmer's- so easy & cheap!

I mix plain water and Elmer's glue 50/50 in a squirt bottle, and use it as a basting spray. If I set it to where it makes a fine mist, there are no glue blobs. There seems to be plenty of glue to hold the fabric and batting in place, but it doesn't give me any trouble when I do the quilting.

I should mention that I haven't tried this for an actual bed-size quilt, but so far it works like a dream for doll quilts and wall hangings. I imagine it would work fine for larger quilts as well, though. :)

I am going to try this method. The others did not work for me.

I am going to try this, I have used the spray and had good results but more expensive. This sounds great. Thanks for the Tut it was great.

I've used Elmer's for piecing and binding, so my next step is to use it for basting. This is a great little tutorial. Now to get my hands on a ping-pong table! I love the idea of diluting and spraying the glue.

I use my finger to lightly spread out the glue gobs. A little messy but it works great!! :-)

I have used the school glue when sewing blocks together and on binding. Beats being stuck with pins.

For globs or any big "dots", take a moment and smooth them out with your finger. I am able to hand-quilt using the Elmer's School Glue method!!

Elmer's by the gallon google search:

https://www.google.com/search?q=elne...ient=firefox-a

I have found that it is much easier to reposition your layers with the washable school glue (prior to it drying) than it is with 505. If a person gets gummed up needles it makes me think that perhaps the glue wasn't dry. I love the glue.

thanks!!! I have been hesitant to try it. Will now give it a shot

Very cool tutorial; now I'm off to try it. Thanks sew much!

I draw a fine grid with the glue, about 4"x4", and dry it with the iron, smoothing it out completely. I get a very thin line if I move the glue applicator very quickly across the quilt--also I finish faster that way. I had one quilt that I had half finished thread basting a few months ago. Now I came back to it, and used Elmer's School Glue on the rest. It was so much easier. I don't think I'm ever going to do it any other way but with the glue. Spray basting makes a mess, and in my view does not give as good results. One thing I do when I'm done basting with the glue is baste stitch with the machine all around the outside edges of the quilt, inside the 1/4" seam allowance--I used to do that with the spray basting too, just to keep the sandwich from opening up at any time during quilting, or while waiting to be quilted.

JanTx - I hear you about the overspray -- I didn't quilt my own quilts unless they were small and I hate to admit this but when the weather is nice, I take my smaller quilts outside to spray - laying them on the lawn and spraying, then moving them inside to lay down - I am sure there are some that are going to think "oh no, not on the grass" but it worked for me. Now that it is raining (in Oregon) that isn't an option, but I don't have to worry about it too much since my hubby bought me a longarm a couple of years ago.

Any school supply store - like Learning World or Learning Palace - should have glue by the gallon

Thanks Moomrise. I wondered about diluting and spraying the washable school glue. I will have to try it.

I have used your method the last 6 quilts and it works great. I am so happy with it. My machine hasn't had any issues, and I too am "frugal" with the thin bead of glue. Close enough to each other but a very thin line.

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation of using Elmer's Glue. I am going to try your method.

Thanks for the tutorial. Didn't have good result the first time but decided to try it again
after seeing your tutorial. I think the glue might have been too thick or I simply have
a heavy hand LOL. So this time I decided to thin it with some water (50/50) and use a
paint brush. I made sure to "press" the paint brush as much as possible before applying
the glue to the batting. Worked like a charm. Haven't quilted it yet. This second attempt
was on a small quilt but how do you push a large quilt through the machine when it's
that stiff? Fold it and not worry about it?

Mine doesn't come out stiff at all; maybe you're still applying too much.

thank you for the tutorial doing it length wise makes it seem easyer. I have been reading a lot about the Elmers school glue basting doing it your way lately. However when I frist read about using elmers School washable glue for basting a quilt the method was by making a homemade spray and spraying it on. Have you ever used it as a spray? I wonder is one way better then the other? I have been putting off finishing my GD's christmas gifts because I am afraid of making a big miss. your turtorial on how to lay out the quilt to glue bast has come just in time maybe tomorrow I will find the courage to start basting. Thank you again yippie

here is the recipe: you use equal parts glue and water in a spray bottle shake until they are compeltely combined, then add 2 to 5 drops of dish soap to the glue mixture. swirl the mixtrue gently with the tube from the head of the bottle until the dish soap has been thoroughly mixed in. after each use remove the sprayer from the spray bottle and flush it out with warm water. recipe from ehow.com called how to make elmer's glue spray.

I puddle when I am FMQ and just push the dang quilt around by starting on the outside and working in I found it so much easier. I would loose track of where I was going when I tried to start in the middle. I think I might just try the spray method, my handd and fingers would get a bit sore from trying to squeeze the glue bottle evenly and my quilts were all queen or larger. I am so glad that so many of you are thinking of doing it this way, I love using the glue for the binding also, after sewing it to the fron and flipping it over, it has cut down my basting time by half I am sure!

Probably. Next time I will try it in grid instead of "painting" all over. I find the paint
brush is much easier on my carpal tunnel than spray and I can control the amount.

If you press it with a hot iron you can dry it straight away

Thank you so much for the instructions and I went to your blog. Thanks again for all the work you did for us.

I'm in the process of glueing down my first binding on a tablerunner. I'm just glueing a small section at a time, and next time I will sew it on the back instead of the front, as I think the back may end up looking the best. We'l see when it's done. I'm so excited and trying this on a quilt; hadn't seen anything about it until I saw it here. Thanks to all of you for posting comments. Donna

Alright Elmer's Washable School Glue quilters here are the pictures
 

Here are the pictures in order from start to end enjoy! Oops there are kinda small but you will understand better now.

Very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to share this information.