Quilt Sandwiches

Stained Glass Quilt sandwiched and basted with safety pins.

Ready for quilting.

I used Hobbs washable Wool for the batting on this one, as we plan to use it in the winter, added to the stack of winter quilts we pile on the bed to stay warm during those cold months (which I much prefer to summer). 

[How do you like my artichoke pitcher?  I use it to hold the safety pins.]

I have multiple quilt tops finished and ready to move onto the next step which is sandwiching the top with batting and backing layers and pin basting in preparation for quilting all 3 layers.  I usually do this task at Quilt Camp where I have the space to spread out and do the work.  But of course, those are not happening due to the pandemic. So ... on to Plan B:

I used my own dining room table with a sheet of plywood on top to make for a larger and rectangle work space.    Have I mentioned how much I love my basting boards?  They were a read game-changer for this step of the quilting process.  It makes things so much easier by keeping the backing and quilt top layers flat and even.   The like to use Hobbs batting because it manages to "stick" to the fabric without basting spray (which bothers my lungs).

Here is"The Ugly Quilt" also sandwiched, pin-basted and ready for quilting.

Hobbs 80/20 Heirloom Cotton batting.

2 more to go! But I'll save that for another day -- I'm out of safety pins!

I explained the process of using basting boards in these previous posts:

From the Deli : Board Basting a Quilt Sandwich

From the Deli : Board Basting a Quilt Sandwich Revisited

Wedding Ring Quilt on The Basting Boards

All Wound Up.

This one is being posted out-of-order.  I actually did these steps BEFORE I could quilt the rings.

It's just such a wonderfully colorful and scrappy quilt.  Here I am winding it onto the basting boards.  This quilt was enveloped, so it doesn't need a traditional binding.

I wanted to set out the proper order of the layers for enveloping a quilt, because it's easy to get it wrong (as me how I know, and how I spent a perfectly good afternoon un-sewing ...)

Layer 1 (bottom layer) : Batting - Free-floating
Layer 2 (middle layer) : Backing - Right side up
Layer 3 (top layer) :  Quilt Top - Right-side down
     In other words, the top and backing are right sides together, on top of the batting.

Baste all 3 layers.
Sew the edges, leaving an opening to turn it inside out.
Trim the edges so they are all even.
Turn it inside out.
Stitch the turning opening shut
Top-stitch the edges to reinforce the enveloped binding.
Baste and Quilt as desired.

From the Deli : Board Basting a Quilt Sandwich Revisited

Right Sides Together created a handy infographic to explain board basting a quilt sandwich :

In her post about it, RST describes board basting as a "game-changer."  I have to agree.  It was never my favorite part of quilting--trying to find an open space large enough to work, not wanting to be on the floor hunched over and uncomfortable in more ways than one ...  Board Basting is so much easier and quicker!  And it can be done on a table-top.

Here are some pics from the most recent quilt I board basted on our dining room table (not on the floor -- yeah!).  I did have to add the 2 leaves to the table as the quilt was a twin size :

 

Winding on the quilt top face up (backwards on the board).  

On the board, you see the wrong-side (seam side) up/out.  That's what we want.

Wind it on until the whole quilt top is wound around the board.

Set aside.

 

Using painter's tape to secure the leading edge onto the basting board.

A good start helps keep the fabric winding on straight.

 

Winding the quilt backing onto the basting board - wrong-side up -- which means, right-side shows on the wound board.   I like to use the wide quilt backings so I don't have to piece backings to be large enough to fit.  These work very well!

 

Turn the boards around to UNwind them.  Here the backing unwinds with wrong-side up.

 

I fluff the batting in the dryer after I take it out of the package.  This helps to release the wrinkles and smooth it out.  Layer the batting on top of the backing and let it free float over the backing and the backing board -- after smoothing it out.   The excess batting flows over the edge of the table onto a couple of dining room chairs.  I use Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Batting.  It "sticks" to the fabrics, which helps keep things in place until I pin baste.  Then start unwinding the top - again, smoothing everything as you go. 

Here the quilt top board is unwound until it meets the backing board underneath the batting where they kind of nest together for the duration ...

 

After the backing, batting, and quilt top are layered and smoothed, it's time to start basting the layers together.  I prefer to use safety pins for this step.

 

Pin Basting.

 

Move the pin-basted section to the edge of the table.  You can roll it up, or let it hang over the edge. Then flip the batting up and out of the way so that you can unwind a new section of backing. The boards will help make sure things stay flat and straight--that's assuming your boards are straight to begin with.

 

Smooth the free-floating batting over the newly opened backing.  This batting "sticks" to the fabric, which I've always found very helpful.

 

Unwind a new section of the quilt top to correspond with the "opened" batting and backing.  Smooth things out as you go.  The boards make this remarkably hassle-free!

 

Here's the last little bit of the quilt top.  I cut it close with the batting.  Ideally, I should have a little more batting to hang over the edges.  But you see how nice and straight things stay with the basting boards.  It's so nice!

 

Here you can see the already pin-basted sectioned rolled up on the upper left side of this picture.

Sandwiched, basted and reasonably stable.

Ta-dah!

From the Deli : Board Basting a Quilt Sandwich

I happened to catch a video on this novel board basting technique by Sharon Schamber.  It could have only been developed by a long-arm quilter who uses the rods to keep the back and top straight and even in the machine quilting process.  The boards serve a similar purpose in this technique, but because they are flat (not round), they stay put better.     Here's another blogger demonstrating the technique (I think this is where I first stumbled upon it.)   Since Sharon S. and Color Me Quilty explained it so well, I won't make this a tutorial, but I will highly recommend this method as no nonsense, quick and easy.  Look at how FLAT the sandwich is.  I've always had trouble with this step in the past.  I LOVE this technique!

I asked my husband to cut some pine boards 8 ft x 3 inches x 3/4 in.  8 ft would cover the largest quilt I'd be able to make (a Double), and these boards will fit in my car (barely) so I can take them to Quilt camp where I will have the space to use them properly.   I had him make a 2nd set 6-1/2 feet long for twin-size quilts.  In the meantime, I need to label and store them, so they don't get used for something else.  Doh!   What do you suggest for binding the boards together?

At Quilt Camp last month, pin basting a quilt was my main project.  I thought it would take most of the day on Saturday.  With this board basting technique, it took only about 1 hour and 15 minutes to work up a large Twin quilt.  It was amazingly fast, easy, and orderly.  I can't believe I never tried it, nor heard of it before.

A few tips that I think made the process easier for me :
1) Used the 6-1/2 foot boards, appropriately sized for this quilt.
2) Since the quilt I was working on was a Twin Long (half of a King), I used a queen-size batting.  I like Hobbs 80/20 cotton poly because I love how it crinkles up for an antique look after it's washed, and the quilt tops and batting sort of stick to it (without spray adhesive) while you're working out this basting step.
3) The Backing :  2 yards of a 108 in quilt backing.  These are so wonderful and so worth the price!  No messing with trying to piece together a backing to get it the right size.  And these come starched so they lay nice and flat (after you've ironed out the folds).  It behaves nicely.   2 yards fit my quilt just about perfectly with only about 6-inches to cut off.
4) Used 2 large tables together as my work space.  The Quilt top and bottom were wound onto the boards.  I used painter's tape to start them out evenly on the boards.  That helped keep them even throughout the winding process.  The batting hung freely in between.  I smoothed thing out as I went.

What you see pictured is a smallish Christmas Quilt top made by my dear Auntie Rosita who died a few weeks ago.  I asked Unca Ray if I could have this top to finish it.  He said yes.   It will be a good one to try quilting on the Featherweight as it's small.

At this step, though, I can't bring myself to do the hand basting with the herringbone stitch, as Susan S. demoed in the video  I struggle too much with hand stitching, tangled threads, and stitches that pull out -- but maybe someday I'll take that step.    It's not an appropriate technique for the quilt I have in mind -- pin basting should work.  But I will still need to make sure the quilt sandwich is properly lined up and even, and this board basting technique makes it look so much easier than taping and struggling with those too-large pieces of fabric.

Have any of you, my gentle readers, used this technique?
What did you think?
I'm definitely sold on it!