Glue basting

 

One of the things I have learned about from watching YouTube videos on quilting is glue basting. 

Back when I first started quilting, I only knew about long basting stitches with a needle and thread. That was very time consuming, but it worked well.

Next, I tried pin basting. That was not for me. I felt like my quilt layers bunched up, and all of those safety pins really annoyed me.

When I was working on my Patriotic Pot Holder quilt this past spring, I used basting spray. It worked really well, but everything in my pressing area felt sticky. 

Since I really didn't like the sticky residue, and since I'm quilting 10" square blocks, I decided I didn't need to use anything for my wall hanging. That did not work out as well as I thought it would. Some of my blocks came out a little off kilter. Lesson learned... I need to baste!

I still have some basting spray left, but I just wasn't ready to go back to using it. So, I went back to YouTube.

I found two different videos in which the quilter's used Elmer's washable school glue. The first quilter squeezed on the glue and then spread it with a foam brush. That did not look like fun to me. 

The second quilter just put dots of glue all over her batting, set the fabric square on top, and then heat set the glue with her iron. That seemed like a much more reasonable approach.

I spent about an hour and a half glue basting 42 blocks for my next quilt. One of the videos recommended waiting 24 hours before stitching to make sure the glue is completely dry. Mom and I had other plans for the day, so that's not a problem!