Basting and Quilting Tips-Bust Your Stash post 4

Sample of a pieced back

I hope you are making great progress on your projects. This month our topic is basting and quilting tips.

Backing:

You’ve finished your top and selected your back. Personally, I like to piece my backs because often I’m able to use the leftovers from the front! I also LOVE using chunks from my stash because it is like a walk down memory lane as I remember making the quilt that used those fabrics.  I like creating an interesting backs. Rarely will I use just one piece of fabric!  At first, it took me a long time to piece a back. As with any process, the more you do it, the better you become at it. Angela Walters has a video of one way she pieced a back. The link is here. 

Batting:

Choose your batting. There are lots of choices. In fact, there are so many choices that you might be overwhelmed with what to choose! Carolina over at Craft Test Dummies posted a video and talked about some questions you should ask yourself before you buy. The link is here. In her video, she referenced a test that she had done on the Fairfield battings. The link to that test is here. 

A sample of my preferred basting method

I have tried cotton batting (Warm and Natural), wool batting (Hobbs and Dream), polyester (Fairfield), silk (Hobbs), bamboo, (Dream) and a blend of 80%cotton and 20% polyester (Hobbs and Pellon). My favorite battings are 80/20 and wool. Sometimes, I even use them together, although, not often! I like the 80/20 for the crinkle factor and I like the wool for the drape factor. Both battings are great to quilt. 

Basting:

A spray basting video link is here. Pin basting (floor), temporary spray basting, board basting options link is here. You could also take your project to a longarmer and ask them to baste it for you. I’ve done that a couple times and I asked the longarmer to use a wash away thread. I have tried all those methods of basting listed. 

Sample of QAYG

My knees object to kneeling so I use a modified version of Cindy Needham’s basting techniques in which she uses a table. I took a Craftsy class long ago that she instructed. Craftsy has since become Bluprint. The reason I stick with pin basting is that I’m not putting in a product in my quilt that I need to remove with washing later. I once over sprayed my kitchen floor with temporary adhesive spray. That spray was a bugger to remove! I decided it might not wash out as easily as I had envisioned. The smell of the spray bothered me and using it added cost to my quilt project. I can reuse my pins!!! 

Quilting:

Once your quilt is basted, you are ready to quilt it! Our quilting is like our signature, it is a symbol of our identity! This is the part I enjoy the most. It is also the part that sometimes leaves me stymied because I don’t know what to do! For me to start, I stitch in the ditch in every seam. I find the ditch stitching to anchor the quilt well enough that I can “play” in other areas without having to quilt from the center out to the quilt edge. This was a tip I learned from a Barbara Shapel class. Ditch quilting also gives me time to think about how I want to play in other areas of the quilt.

Sample of custom free motion quilting

Angela Walters in a video shares three tips about quilting designs.You can find it here. Laura Ann Coia from “SewVeryEasy” in a video shares how the letter “C” can become an all over design. You can find the video here. Wendy Gratz from “Shiny, Happy World” in a video shares how to quilt a big quilt on a standard machine. You can view the video here. 

If you haven’t stitched your blocks together yet, you could use the Quilt As You Go (QAYG) method. You can view a post from “Instructables Craft” here for more information. I’ve quilted a couple quilts using this method. Planning ahead is the key to making this option a success. 

If free motion quilting has you stymied, you can quilt with your walking foot. Leah Day has a tutorial about walking foot basics. You can find it here. You can even use your walking foot and your built in machine stitches to quilt your project. Carol Ann Waugh of “Stupendous Stitching” shares a video here. Carol also spends some time talking about threads. 

My tips for machine quilting are:

*Make a sample of your quilt sandwich and use this sample to test and to practice your stitches.

Sample of quilting with a walking foot

*Use the same thread top and bottom if you are having tension issues. Superior Threads has a great reference guide available for troubleshooting and tension. You can find the main reference page here. Sometimes you can rethread the machine or change the needle and that solves the challenge!

*Check the back regularly. It is maddening to find out you’ve quilted a tuck or a piece of fabric into the back when you hadn’t planned it!

*Plan that the quilting will take at least as long as the piecing did.

*Take breaks every 15-30 minutes. Your body will love you for it!

*Keep quilting, the more you quilt the better your skills become. You really can quilt!

Next month, our topic will be about finishing touches.  Don’t forget to post a comment at #2020bustyourstashchallenge on instagram or on my blog here. Thank you to those that have posted!