The results are in.
I asked you how you baste your quilts.
It seems like we have a fairly even divide between those of you who pin baste your quilts before machine quilting them and the rest of you who use some sort of spray or fusing product. There were a few people who thread baste and even a couple of brave souls who just stitch without basting.
I didn’t ask for information on how big the quilts are that you make. Does that make a difference to how you baste?
For me basting is probably the most tedious part of making a quilt but I love the actual quilting so I know that it needs doing and doing well. I have a whole section on basting in my book. I really do think it is important!
As you might have guessed by the featured image at the top of today’s post I am a pin baster. I use the 1″ safety pins and put them in around 3″ apart all over my quilt top.
I often use a Kwik Clip to close them.
If you are putting lots of pins into a quilt it really does save your fingers.
I don’t have anything against spray basting. I just make a mess with it and I find it doesn’t hold the layers together as well as pins for the way I handle my quilts. My daughter uses spray baste and likes it!
The Free Fuse powder I mentioned before certainly worked well on my little pieces. Some of you mentioned Bo Nash Fuse It powder? From what I am told the major difference is that Free Fuse is considered a temporary bond. I don’t know enough to say any more than that.
Oh yes! the point of the comments was to draw a random winner for a signed copy of Jenny’s book…
I have drawn a name and I have sent an e-mail. I’m waiting for a reply. If you didn’t get an e-mail that means you didn’t win 🙁 You still have time to buy a copy of Free Motion Quilting from Ordinary to Extraordinary from wherever you normally purchase your quilting books and get it before the holidays!
UPDATE: I heard from Vicki D in BC, Canada… congratulations and happy stitching!
I like this question. For most of my quilts, which are usually wall quilts less than 50 x 50, I do a very light spray baste of the batting and then pin baste the corners. Then I machine baste (I have a Bernina Q20 which has a BSR that bastes 1, 2, or 4 stitches per inch) the quilt. If I am making a small quilt (less than 30 x 30 for instance) I will not do the machine baste. I used to pin baste, but I had some problems on the back. Spray basting seemed to mostly eliminate that for me.