The Importance of Being Basted

You're in a rush to get the hand quilting started. Do you really want to take the time to baste the three layers or just go for it?

First- BACK AWAY from the quilt and re-think this. Would you just toss the sheets on the bed without tucking them in? Would you wear your blouse half-tucked into your skirt or jeans and expect them to look nice and smooth?

Basting is a Must what ever method you use. Basting with needle and thread, safety pins, tailer tacks..

 it's a Necessity!

It doesn't matter if you use a hoop, or quilt on your lap with a pillow. Now, if you use a floor frame, you can get away without the basting to a point. I still basted a little even when I used a frame. It just makes sense. You don't want to skip important steps that will ensure your quilting to be right instead of Quick. You layer the backing, batting and top and leave about four inches of backing and batting on all four sides. This gives you room for a little 'give' for your quilting. You might think that after it's basted that it will stay that size, but it won't. With your quilting, it will make the top spread just a tad and with that 4 inches of backing and batting, you won't need to worry about the top over-lapping when you're finished. (Read Chapter Threeof Guide to Hand Quilting)

Besides holding all three layers together to work on, it gives you a sense of smugness that you performed this task that Nobody really likes doing! (if, in fact, smugness is a real word) It's a Very important step in completing a project that brought blood, sweat and probably a few tears to accomplish.

I HATE basting. There, I said it.

I also hate taking OUT quilting because the backing has a huge pleat in it because I didn't baste and tighten the right way or at all because, well.....because I wanted to save time! Ugh. There can be some short cuts to the process of hand quilting and finishing a quilt, but this isn't one of them. Have I said it enough???

I'M KAREN BUSH AND I HATE BASTING, BUT DO IT ANYWAY.

(maybe I should form a group of basting haters?)

Read the book to see what you can use for different sizes of quilts and techniques for the basting. Duct tape is even included in the tutorial. Of COURSE it is, duct tape can be used for many things, just like spackling. (although, I haven't found a way to use spackling on a quilt yet)

If you're a beginner to hand quilting, there are different methods/techniques in the book with pictures to show you how to baste when you just don't have the space to lay the quilt out to baste or for small wall hangings. Some of the pictures are not that pretty, but, it's the techniques I'm showing that counts, right?

More blogs coming. If you have questions, just leave them on the blog and I'll answer as quickly as I can, or, there might be others out there that want to answer and add Their experiences!

Get your book and get ready for some fun. It's in Kindle format as well as soft cover.

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