keeping it flat (again)

I'm just a beginner myself, and maybe my flatness standards are not as high as yours. But here is what I do.

I iron the back and the top. More than once. I go to work where they have big conference tables and masking-tape the back to the table. I usually take several tries at it before it's all lying flat. I smooth the batting out on the back. Then I put the top on, smooth it out from the centre, and use safety pins. I start pinning at the middle, and work outwards about a fist-width apart.

I don't close any of the pins until I've undone the masking tape, flipped the thing over, and checked out the back. If there are wrinkles or big puckers, I do part of it over.

What basting method are you using?

Louise, in Kingston Ontario

Morag in Scotland wrote:

Morag,

This is what I do, it works for me.

(1) press the backing (2) lay the backing on a table, fasten the sides (or top/bottom) to table using big bulldog type clips - if the quilt is small, I use lots of pieces of masking tape instead. I make sure it is taught but not stretched. (3) spread the batting on top - and fasten it by including in the clips, or using more tape - don't let the backing slip. (4) press the top - I usually do this much sooner, but then fold it until ready to baste, so I give it another quick trip to the ironing board just to be sure it is flat. (5) lay the top on top of the batting. I start by laying it out loosely, then making sure the it is centred, then I flatten it out. I start from the middle and gradually make it lie flat and smooth in all directions. I also try to make sure that any straight sewing lines (like sashing and borders) look straight. Fasten the top with the clips/more tape. (6) baste - I use little curved safety pins (for machine quilting). I put one in the middle, then go straight to each side + top/bottom. The I go back to the middle and go out towards the corners. Then I fill in, again going from the middle out. I try to get the safety pins quite close together (about a fist in distance). I also try to avoid the spots where I planned my quilting (if I did). (7) Now go back and close the safety pins! (8) Remove clips/tape. (9) Turn the quilt-to-be over and run your hands over it, all over it. Check that it is smooth, there should be no sensation of little folds when you do this - go in all directions across the quilt.

(9b) If there are little tucks near the edges, I usually just sort them without re-doing the whole clips/tape thing, but I have been known to just take the whole basting apart because it was no good.

This works for me - I think it is crucial to check the basting before beginning to quilt :-)

Hanne in London

Morag, I don't know about the frames, since I don't use one. But I follow the directions -- generally speaking -- that Harriet Hargrave gives in her book. My table is too thick to be able to use the bulldog clips most people can use, so I use those clips you can get to hold down a picnic tablecloth so the wind won't blow it away. I use those on at least two sides of the table, depending on how large the quilt is.

1. spread out the backing and clamp it firmly to the table. If the quilt is too small to clamp on all sides, clamp two sides and tape (duct tape works better for me than masking tape) the other two. The backing should be smooth and sort of taut, but not stretched.
2. lay out the batting on top of the backing. Smooth it carefully to avoid having tucks. I don't generally tape/clamp this, since it will cling to the backing (that's because I use cotton batting -- a different kind would call for different measures).
3. smooth the top onto the backing. I use a laser level square (thanks for the idea, Kathy A!) to make sure that all of my seams are lying straight. Smooth some more. Clamp and/or tape the top to the table.
4. pin baste. I use a Kwik Klip to try to save my fingers, and I close the pins as I go -- I've found unclosed pins the hard way a few times, so I don't go back to do this any longer.
5. remove all the tape and clamps, inspect the back for accidental boo-boos (did you get the backing under the whole back?, etc.), and begin quilting.

HTH! :)

I'm still a beginner but have had a couple of lap quilts lay flat for machine quilting by using basting spray.

1. Lay the batting on a large enough flat surface and get the batting really smoothed out.
2. Spay the batting with basting spray making sure there is plently of spray near the edges
3. Wait the recommended five minutes and get someone to help you carefully place the quilt back finished side up on the batting. I usually mark center lines along the edge of the batting and fold the quilt back in half before laying it on the batting. It usually takes two or three tries to get the quilt back and batting really smooth.
4. Turn the smoothed out backing/batting sandwich over and spray the batting.
5. Repeat "Step 3" with the quilt top making sure to match the center fold of the quilt top matches up with the center line marks so the top and backing are square.

Keep in mind the above was written by a real novice.

Jerry in North Alabama

I think where I've been going wrong is not either taping the backing to the floor or clamping it to table. It tends to slip and slide around which I think is causing most of my problems. I am basting using large tacking stitches radiating out from the centre of the quilt, I had never thought about using pins. My first thought abuot safety pins is getting ones large enough to go through the three layers.

morag

hand quilters seem to prefer thread basting so the quilt can be put easily into a hoop, personally I wouldn't want to hand baste a quilt for machine quilting, if there is a thread lurking around, the needle always seems to end up going through it which makes for tricky removal.

Safety bins really need to be sharp rather than big, I have some curved ones about an inch long which are fine, when I needed some more, I bought small, straight ones, because you got more in a pack, they are sharp and seem to go through and close with no problems.

I second the recommendation of taping the backing and batting to the floor or table.

Cheers Anne

The safety pins sold for the purpose over here have a curved bottom side, to make them easier to feed through the three layers and do up without puckering.

Louise

I agree.

I place the backing on my 4x2 ft table, put a long piece of wood on each long edge, and use 2 large C-clamps to clamp down each piece of wood. That backing doesn't move.

Then I drape the batting, and then the top over all, and pin. I don't bother to clamp batting or top.

Martha

I do prefer thread basting to pins - your fingers are really sore after using all those pins. Some use a grapefruit spoon to help with the pinning while clipping and unclipping, but I personally find it a royal pain. I always start in the middle and baste outward to the edge - maybe do five or six lines one way, then go over to the opposite side and do the same, flattening the fabric and giving a bit of a tug at the edges to make sure it's flat. Then starting in the middle again, go up for five or six lines, then the opposite end flattening all the way. I just keep basting this way till the whole quilt is done. Some people will baste the diagonal too, but I've never found that I've had to do this as long as I'm vigilant about smoothing as I go each direction. You can buy old cheap thread - never coloured, just beige or white, in bins at craft stores and there's no guilt trip when you're at the stage of pulling it all out and throwing it away. Just my method and it works for me. Good luck.

Sharon (N.B.)

Howdy!

Most of the hand quilters I know use safety pins for basting. The 1" pins are just fine, esp. w/ a Kwik Klip tool:

bigger pins are perfect for the rolled border (backing folded overthe front to cover the edges of the batting). More basting helps have a flatter, smoother quilt sandwich.Starting w/ a pin in the middle of the sandwich before I lay it out, Iline up the backing to the quilt top; that middle pin gives me a goodstarting point. When I pin on the table the weight of the sandwich hanging over the table helps keep everything in place (no taping needed). Gently & firmly smoothing the sandwich while working towards the outside edges makes the wrinkles disappear; use a yardstick as a "trowel". ;-)

Try different techniques to see which works best for you. Practice. Invest some time in this process. It will get easier for you.

Good luck! R/Sandy -- w>

Sandy, We must have had the same teacher! I do mine exactly like you do, and I've never had a pleat or pucker! (I'd better go knock on wood!) I do use the curved pins.

Alice, I must say that I prefer the curved pins, but I have *lots* of the straight kind and refuse to waste them. I figure I'll replace them with curved ones as the straight ones become blunt and need to be discarded. :)

I lay out the ironed backing on the carpeted floor, I put packing tape at each corner of the short end, then tape at long intervals in between. Then, smoothing it out, tape the two other corners, then tape at long intervals in between. When I've made certain that it all looks nice and flat [don't stretch it], I lay on the batting, smooth it out from the middle and a piece of tape just on the four corners and one in the middle of each side. Then I lay out the ironed top, smoothing out from the middle and taping in the corners, then along the side with a couple.....depends on the size of the quilt. Usually just the corners and a bit in the middle of each side holds it. Then I use the curved 1" safety pins [straight ones do the job too, just harder on the fingers], starting from the middle [on my bum] I work out to the sides. Haven't had any problems even with the thick poly batting. Cotton batting is nicer to work....behaves itself. But the poly worked this way as well. I think the carpet helps to keep it in place as well. I have basted in the past but I'm too impatient and pinning is quicker. I have at times clamped to a table using the big office paper clamps and will have to go back to that shortly as I'm not getting any younger and the floor gets further away!

Wendy in NSW

I have a few questions about this method.

How do you get the pins to turn upwards if you have everything taped down tightly flat? Obviously you can't put your hand under the quilt sandwich to manage this.

How do you keep the pins from hitting the table and just sticking into it? That is all that happened when I tried it on three different tables no matter how shallowly I inserted the pins. Scared table tops is not an option.

Debra in VA See my quilts at

Debra,

I use curved pins. I don't know how one would avoid the problems you list with straight pins, but with curved pins I never had a problem.

Mine are 1" also.

Hanne in London

OK!

1. Make sure your top is smooth and flat to begin with, and tidy uploose threads sticking out. Press. Make sure the backing is also pressed without creases.
2. I use an old dining table. Center the backing wrong side up, centering in both directions and making sure the grain lines are square with the table.(You don't want an oval table!) Clamp or masking tape (I only do the ends) to the table. This is the most important step! The backing needs to be perfectly smooth without any stretching. If you stretch it, it will snap back as soon as the tension is released and end up smaller than the top, so puckers are almost guaranteed.
3. Center the batting and smooth into place.
4. Ditto with the top. Double check to make sure your backing and batting extend beyond the top all the way around.
5. Then pin, using about twice as many pins as you thought you would need. There should be a pin or preferably 2 wherever you put your fist down.
6. Assuming the quilt is larger than the table top, you pin the center bit first. Pin only to within about 4" of the edge. (The edge of the table distorts everything.) Then slide the sandwich to one side, re-tape the backing, and proceed as above until all sections are pinned. Roberta in D

"Morag in Scotland" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@bt.com...

Speaking of pins...which brand do you use????. There is one brand that I dislike ...dull as a hoe ! I'd like to buy some that I can use with those plastic gizmos --Eleanor Burns uses them ---but make a little 'handle' for grasping the safety pins. I just do not want to keep buying pins that are useless... TIA... Mary in VT

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 10:21:07 -0500, Morag in Scotland wrote (in article ):

I use masking tape to tape the edges of the backing taut to my table. Then layer the batting and smooth it out. clip it to the edge of the table with the biggest binder clips I can find. Layer the top and reclip to table with the batting after that is smooth. If I'm basting on the floor, I use tape on all the layers instead of the clips.

Maureen