Charlie Brown Quiltalong Part 5: Basting

This is my basting method. I've never seen anyone do it exactly like me and my method may not work for you. I do a lot of free motion quilting and the occasional light straight line quilting and I don't get puckers. This works for me, but it may not work for you. Take what you like from my method and leave what you don't...that's how I came up with this method in the first place!

Here is my frankenbatting.  This is just large scraps of the same brand of batting.  You can piece these with a zigzag on a machine, hand stitch them with a whipstitch, or do what I did....piece them on top of each other with VERY LITTLE overlap using a straight stitch.  I don't recommend that way but if you can't have a zigzag function it will work.  I have a machine that will zigzag but it is a pain to drag it out to piece batting.  I lay my batting over my long dining room table using these large clips I found in the dollar tree near the clothespins and laundry bags.  They are also good for taking quilt pics on a fence.  They are like having an extra set of hands.  I only baste about half a quilt at a time if the entire quilt doesn't fit onto my table. 

I use this June Tailor quilt basting spray.  This is a new bottle.  The old bottle was shaped like aquanet and this new design is a definite improvement.  If you have a choice between the 2 styles, remember Aquanet bad, rounded bottle good.

First things first, make sure your backing and quilt top have been ironed and are as wrinkle free as possible.  If you have bad wrinkling in your cotton batting, you can iron it as well...just don't try that with a synthetic batting.  I spray my quilt LIGHTLY with the basting spray and then lay my backing fabric on top.  Using my hands I start spreading and straightening from the inside out (remember I'm only doing half right now, I'll do the other half later).  After my hands have straigtened as many puckers as possible, I use my iron and iron from the center outward.  I do use steam.  I haven't had a problem with the finish on my table.  If I had a super nice table, I'd worry about doing this, but this table has much bigger problems than being the occasional basting center...it gets the abuse of 3 boys and a fat scottie dog who likes to jump on it.

When I'm done with one half, I do the same thing on the other half.  I repositioned my clips on the dge again.

Now turn your quilt over and start basting the top.  If your backing/front is directional, make sure you get it right (guess what, I didn't...I repositioned and forgot to check that everything was going the right direction).  I lay the batting side up and then lay my quilt top on my batting.  I roll back my quilt top like a sardine can lid then spray my batting.  After the batting is tacky, I slowly unroll the quilt top, pressing with my hands and then with my iron. 

Because I use heat in my basting method, I never mark my quilt top before basting.  Doing so could make your disappearing ink set permanently. 

Next up: Quilting your quilt sandwich!!