A little about quilt basting: Finishing your quilt Part 1

Check out this cute, sweet, and simple little quilt. These smaller quilts are special because they give me the chance to employ my least whiny quilt holder. Of the three quilt holders in my house, he’s the only one who actually seems happy about the job opportunity. Most of my quilts are too big for him to hold up, so I let him be the quilt holder whenever I make a quilt that isn’t too big for him.

This quilt was made with a purpose. I have another quilt top that actually got claimed by a buyer before I even picked a backing. The customer requested a strawberry design for the quilting. I made this little quilt to practice my strawberries.

In this post and this post I have some instructions for how to make the quilt tops, but the instructions stop after the quilt top and gloss on over to “baste it, quilt it, and bind it”. So, I’ve decided to go over basting and binding too. Basting is a lot to talk about, enough to make for a long post, so I’ll talk about basting in this post and binding in the next post.

Before we dive into basting as promised in the title, here are the fabric requirements and measurements to make this little quilt top:

-5 fat quarters
-Cut each fat quarter into 4, 9 inch squares
-I saved the left over strips from the fat quarters and will work them into a scrappy binding.

Alright, on to basting!

What is basting anyway? A quilt has three layers, the quilt top, batting in the middle, and the backing (or two quilt tops if you’re making a reversible quilt). The quilting, or the thread designs that run all over the quilt have to hold these three layers together, but until it’s quilted, you have to have some way to keep these layers together and cooperating for you while you move it around in your machine to quilt it. This is what basting does. It holds these three layers together for you so you can quilt it. Ideally, you want to avoid accidental folds and puckers, so doing a good job of basting is important.

I’m only going to talk about the basting methods I’ve tried so far: pin basting, spray basting, glue basting. I currently flip back and forth between spray basting and glue basting, but I do still use pin basting every now and then when the situation calls for it.

Before I get in to each basting method, I know we all have our way of basting that we like. If I say I don’t like your way, or if you don’t like my way, we can still be friends. Basting is one of those things where you have to find out what works best for you.

The one I used for this quilt is glue basting using stick glue, so feel free to scroll down to that part to see the step by step basting instructions with pictures.

Pin Basting

When I first started quilting, this was the only method I used. I found it long and tedious, but I was resistant to try anything else. What if the spray basting doesn’t stick well enough to keep the quilt from shifting while I try to quilt it? What if the glue doesn’t come out in the wash? These fears prevented me from trying anything else.

I’ve read tutorials that say you should pin every 2 inches to keep the layers from shifting on you and causing folds and puckers. When I finally got tired of all the pinning and tried glue basting, I was amazed by how the fabric did not shift on me at all during quilting. After that, I pretty much quit pin basting, but I do still used it from time to time.

I used pin basting when I made that reversible quilted blanket (picture to the right). There’s no batting, and the client didn’t want binding, so I made it a little differently than my typical quilts.

I put the two fabrics right sides together and sewed all around the edges with a large seam allowance, basically sewing it together inside out. I left an opening about 6 inches wide so that I could turn it right side out and just used the decorative stitching on the edges to close that opening. With this method, getting to the inside surfaces to glue or spray would be either messy or difficult, so I do use pin basting on this type project.

Another reason I don’t like pin basting is that I don’t like having to constantly stop quilting to open the safety pins. I do make a lot of large quilts, and if you pinned every two inches, that’s a lot of safety pins to take out, a lot of stopping and starting, and a lot of extra time spent on my current quilt before I can move on to the next one. This constant stopping and starting also makes it difficult to get smooth curves with free motion quilting, especially when you are first learning.

Just because I don’t like pin basting anymore doesn’t mean that it’s not a good method. Lots of quilters still use it with great results. It’s also important to note that pin basting is more cost effective. Those safety pins pictured earlier were used over and over again. With the spray and glue methods, the amount you used on one quilt gets washed away and can’t be used again.

Spray Basting

Spray basting is certainly quicker than pin basting. As far as the layers shifting while I’m quilting, I find that my fear was unfounded, and the spray basting did do a good job holding everything together for me so I could quilt. All spray bastes are not created equal though. I’ve heard horror stories about the layers staying stuck together even after being washed. I’ve also heard quilters say that the brand they tried didn’t actually hold their quilt layers together well at all. The only spray baste I’ve tried is 505 Spray, made by Odif, and it works great for me.

Some concerns with spray basting:

-It’s an aerosol, so a lot of people are bothered by the smell. This could also be a concern for people with asthma. You’ll want to use it in a well ventilated area, and it’s always a good idea to read the warning labels on any product you use.
-Overspray and making a mess are also a common concern.

Glue Basting

I’m going to break glue basting up into two categories: the white glue and stick glue. For both types of glue, you’ll want to be sure to get the washable school glue. I use Elmer’s and haven’t really bothered to try anything else because I’ve had good results with it.

Glue basting using the white school glue

I’m not going to lie, this one’s messy. The first time I tried this, I spread my quilt layers out on the kitchen floor, and a lot of the glue did go through the layers and got all over my floor. It did mop right up with a swiffer wet, but you should note that I’ve only tested this on my floors, so I have no experience with how this would clean up on your floors. I haven’t tried it, but I imagine it would make a huge mess on carpet without some sort of barrier under the quilt.

Constantly squeezing the glue bottle is also an issue because it’s hard on you hands. I get around this one by buying the giant bottles of glue, pouring some into a disposable plastic bowl, and using a paint brush to spread it evenly.

The white glue needs to dry overnight before you start quilting, so this may be a concern if time is a factor. It also dries a little harder compared to the stick glue. I was concerned about this the first time I tried it, but it did not cause me any issues. I was also pleasantly surprised by the lack of shifting while quilting.

The puppy quilt pictured required me to have to applique onto minky. Minky is soft and warm, but it’s also quite EVIL. It’s synthetic, stretchy, makes a huge mess with lots of lint, and is generally uncooperative. Not exactly the easiest thing to applique onto. Enter glue basting with the white glue. I applied it liberally to the minky, and it dries crispy enough that the minky has no choice but to cooperate. I would recommend going slow when sewing though to take it easy on your needle with all that crunchy glue.

Glue basting with stick glue

This is the method that I use the most. I like to use the purple Elmer’s Washable School version of stick glue. It dries clear, so if I’m taking my sweet time and let the glue dry before I’m able to get the quilt glued together, I can tell that it’s dry and needs to be reapplied. Unlike the white school glue, you can take it straight to your machine after basting without having to wait on drying. It’s also not messy like the white glue.

Here’s how I go about basting with the stick glue. Note that this is the same general process that you would use for spray basting.

Step 1

Lay your batting out on a flat surface and smooth out all the wrinkles. Place your quilt top on of the batting and smooth out all the wrinkles.

*A few notes:
-A lot of people like to lay all three layers out and baste it all at once. That’s perfectly fine to do this if it works for you, but I have better results with keeping folds and puckers out of the quilt if I baste the top and backing in separate steps.
-If you feel like you need a hard flat surface for basting, the floor, a table, or whatever you want to lay the quilt out on are certainly fine to use. I put mine on the bed because I have better results with keeping the batting taut on the foam mattress compared with how it always wants to fold up into big wrinkles when I baste on hard surfaces.
-Confession: I do not bother with cutting my batting or backing to a certain size before I go to baste. That large scale cutting is logistically more difficult than say cutting the 9 inch squares, and I find it unnecessary. I just lay it all out and trim off the excess later. If this step is something you need, go ahead and measure your batting and backing to an exact number.

Step 2

Fold your quilt top back in half and begin applying glue in sections. Work in small sections so that you can get the top glued to the batting before the glue dries. For me, applying the glue to the quilt top versus the batting doesn’t make any difference in the end result, so do whatever you find works out best for you.

After applying the glue, smooth that section out over the batting, pressing down to stick the glue and smoothing out wrinkles. Keep doing that until you finish that first half of the quilt.

Repeat this with the other side of the quilt, working in sections as before until you get the whole quilt top glued to the batting.

Step 3

Trim off excess batting. I like to leave at least 3-4 inches all around the quilt top (eyeballing it of course).

Step 4

Flip it so that the quilt top is down so that you can do the same thing with the backing. Apply the glue in sections just like you did with the quilt top. Press down to adhere the backing to the batting, smoothing out wrinkles as you go.

Step 5

Trim off excess backing. I like to trim it pretty much even with the batting.

Now that you’ve got it basted, you can start quilting!

How you quilt it is going to depend on a few things.

Your skill level is going to be a big factor in what kind of quilting you use. If you’re making one of your first quilts you may want to stick to straight lines. If you do free motion quilting, that will probably be faster for you. Here’s a shot of the strawberries I used this quilt to practice (pictured on the right).

Another thing to consider is how dense you want or need your quilting to be. Denser quilting makes for a more durable quilt. Quilting is not only pretty but it’s also functional; it holds all three of those layers together. So, more quilting makes for less work on each individual stitch. Less quilting makes for a more flowy quilt that has a pretty drape. You have to decide where on that spectrum you want to be.

Another factor is the batting that you used. The quilting has another structural function in that it holds the batting down and stabilizes it so that it doesn’t wad up on you over time and washings. The specs on the batting will tell you how much area you can leave unquilted without issues. This is different for all battings, so you should check the specs for the batting you are using.

Now that she’s all quilted, the next steps will be to trim off that excess batting and backing and work on binding. I’ll post instructions for binding in next week’s post.

I hope you found this post on basting useful.

As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave me a comment or email me.

Happy quilting!