Basting a quilt.

[Magot]

Having moved home I no longer have enough floor space to actually lay out a quilt flat to assemble the beast. I have a top that has been waiting to go since 2010 quilt challenge (hoo boy!) and suddenly thought I could lay it out at church. My brane - a bit slow sometimes. It would be putting it on carpet rather than on hardwood floor, but I am sure I could still masking tape it down as Judy has suggested before. My question is - I usually hand baste a quilt before sewing but I know some of you use safety pins. I have just bought myself some to give it a try but am not sure how far apart these things have to be to hold integrity. I would normally baste a grid, starting in the centre and working outwards about 6" apart.

What do you do? What is your preferred method and why do you like it, Grovelling on the floor for that long is knackering on the knees/back I have to admit!

[HeyJudee]

Jan, do they have any tables at your church? If so, you can put two tables together and stretch & tape the backing on the tables. Saves the back and is much easier pinning. At our VQC meetings, we put two 6' tables together side by side and tape across them. Of course, our quilts are approx. 50"X 70" so usually fit on two tables. If a quilt is larger, you can use more tables or tape and pin it in sections, e.g. halves or by quarters.

Now as to the distance between the pins, well I think that is kinda a personal preference. When I pin mine (using my frame method) I space about every 4" or so. But when we do the VQC ones, the general rule we are supposed to follow is approx. a fist width apart. But sometimes they are wider than that...cause we do lots of quilts and need lots of pins. Also, we try to place the pins so that they are not in our planned quilting path...like if we are going to quilt a grid e.g. corner to corner across the block, then we make sure the pins are not in the corners of the blocks, etc.

Hope this helps.

[momquilts]

That's how we do it at our church also.

[bridesmom]

I do mine about a hands breadth apart about 4.5 - 5". And the nicest little tool to help with the pins is this http://www.daystyledesigns.com/kwikklip.htm. It really saves on the hands and fingers when closing the pins! I use it with both flat and curved pins. I'm lost if I don't have it!

[HeyJudee]

But a grapefruit spoon or just a regular spoon can do the trick if you don't have a Kwik-klip...

[Magot]

I never thought of the tables idea - I am so used to grovelling on the floor! Good tip.

[HeyJudee]

Tables are much better than grovelling...just sayin'