This Can of Spray Baste Changed My Life

So maybe that might be a little dramatic to say spray basting changed my life, but for my frustrations with domestic machine quilting, it’s helped immensely!  The last few weeks leading up to the Piece and Quilt with Precuts Blog Hop, I kept saying I needed to spray baste and quilt the top to finish it for the blog hop.  I kept pushing it off week after week because I typically hate basting. But this week I decided to spray basted for the first time! It was a little awkward, and I got a little on my hand and realized it was pretty sticky.  The jury was still out on this method. But fast forward to doing the spiral square quilting for the SWAK quilt, and I was absolutely sold!  The quilt sandwich did not shift when I was rotating and manhandling the quilt to finish quilting it! I am totally sold on being able to deal with the quilt with no shifting and no safety pins in the way!

Just to be sure this wasn't a fluke of loving how spray baste helps my quilting, I decided to work on some smaller quilt tops that have been completed for months. Seriously, it was amazing!  I even thought maybe it really wasn't the quilting parts that I dreaded but the basting!  Spray basting removed that barrier.  This is a mini quilt from the Starkiss pattern by Maho Quilts. I made this during the 2017 Winter Quiltfest.

I tried it next on a piece which was a little larger.  This is the Maui Quilting's 2015 Row by Row design I picked up in April and never actually quilted until now!  I can't wait to get this hung up in my sewing room!

With spray basting helping alleviate my anxiety about quilting, I was even bold enough to try some free motion quilting (FMQ) on my Frivols 2 quilt.  I mean seriously, I avoid FMQ like the plague and now I'm volunteering to do it? Who am I?

I still need to get the binding on this quilt, but for the first time FMQ'ing in months, I think it looks pretty good!

I must mention that I machine bound the other quilts I finished this week too.  I tried multiple different techniques, and I'll share my learnings a different day. Overall, I still think hand finishing the binding looks nice, but being able to call a quilt done quickly with machine binding is amazing.

~*~*~*~*~*~

I am no expert on spray basting yet, but I do have tips for those that have yet to try it out:

• Spray baste outside - the fumes are a little bit strong so being outside helps.
• The can is very flammable so definitely be careful with storage.
• The can says to spray the batting, but I definitely just spray the fabric.
• Press the backing, quilt top, AND batting to ensure each piece is nice and flat.
• Use a large ruler to help smooth the batting on the backing, and then the front onto the backing.
• I used a small portable table to spray baste on. Make sure you cover the surface you are spraying to protect it from the potential overspray.
• Since I was working with smaller quilts, I actually started from one edge rather than in the middle.  This was easier for me overall to make sure I wasn't going to run out of backing or batting on any one side.  I know this is probably very different than how others do it.
• Christa Watson had a great demonstration of spray basting, which I followed, in her Start-Up Quilting Craftsy Class.  (read my review of the class here)
• A few basting pins are helpful along the outer edges so you don’t need to do quite so much overspray. (Tip from Kris!)

Anyway I'm off to hopefully reduce the number of quilt tops waiting to be basted and subsequently quilted now that I've fallen in love with spray basting!  Have a great weekend!

8/25-9/1 Weekly Goal:

Available time for quilting:
Saturday PM, Sunday PM, Monday PM, Tuesday PM

Projects I want to work on:
PBQ105
Baby Whale Quilt
PBQ103
Tabby Road

Goals for the Projects:
PBQ105: Make test blocks to confirm design idea
Baby Whale Quilt: Baste, quilt, and bind
PBQ103: Take the finished photos and get the final version complete
Tabby Road: Make half of the hour glass blocks

Leave a comment