Anyone baste with spray?

Does anyone baste their quilt sandwich with adhesive spray?

I have used Helmar 101. It gets good reviews. Not having anything to compare it to, I thought it was so-so. Probably a little better than pins …

I’m about to baste up a large lap quilt and just wanted to see what other people use.

I use 505 when I glue-baste stuff for quilting. And have used Sullivan’s or June Tailor when it was what I could get my hands on in a basting emergency. But I have to admit, it’s an exercise in frustration as a solo act. I always seem to end up with a cloud of glue settling on me instead of the fabric, and wrinkles/bubbles in the middle.

But that doesn’t really answer your query…

I guess of the evils, I prefer 505, preferably with the top/back stiffened with Terial Magic. Then trim down the excess backing and batting so only a minimum amount of thread, dog hair, etc attaches itself to the edges while working on the quilting part of the equation.

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Thanks. How badly does it gum up the needle?

I have not yet graduated from stabbing myself to possibly getting glue everywhere so I don’t have an opinion, but I’ve always been curious about the basting guns. They look like they could either be awesome or just terrible.

edited to add the rest of the thought I meant to put down in the first place before I got distracted and hit Submit.

Not as bad as Sullivan’s did. I think the only times I’ve noticed a lot of buildup, I’m doing a lot of heavy, close threadwork. The owner of Best of Bernina advocates keeping alcohol swabs handy to wipe off the needle when doing the standard lint-removal and lubricating tasks while working on an ecxtended project.

Have you tried any of the fusible battings? I like Hobbs. Had a few bad batches that made me leery for a time, but have been gravitating back. The bond isn’t permanent; more what I’d describe as post-it note adhesion. It’s a chore, but at least I don’t wind up wearing glue or have sticky stuff around the does…

I bought one, a million years ago, but never got around to trying it. During the chenille rage, they were popular for getting all the layers of fabric to stay together. Somewhere, I read a recommendation to get one of those 2’x4’ gridded deflector panels for fluorescent lights in dropped ceilings to make the poking/triggering easier. But then, you still have to deal with cutting all those pesky plastic things off when you’re done… and if you’re like me, all of your crappy scissors go into hiding the moment you want to cut tags off garments. Leaving only your favorite embroidery scissors or the Ginghers in sight.

Argh, the moral dilemma!!

My next undertaking is to see whether I like working with something basted on a long arm.

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Did anyone else think this was about cooking a turkey? :grin:

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I also use the 505 spray and it doesn’t gum up the needle at all. I also use a basting gun with plastic tags that I can quilt right over. This combined method seems to work really well since I really manhandle my quilts during the quilting process.

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First thought was a garden sprayer aimed at the bird in the oven. :slight_smile:

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Progress report.

While my workmanship isn’t anything to write home about, the 505 (adhesive - for you non-quilty types) is working well for me. So far. I only have about a third of the quilt stitched.

I was stressed about spraying it on the floor without spraying the floor. I put butcher paper under the whole quilt back, and sprayed it (just in case it seeps through that layer). Then I removed the butcher paper, taped the back to the floor, and positioned the first (of two) batting layers. Alignment on that layer isn’t critical. For the second batting and the top, I used the “smooth it in place dry, fold back half, spray, then reposition that half” approach. It worked well. To prevent overspray I used thinner strips of butcher paper covering about 1 - 2" of the edge and over the floor. I didn’t care whether the adhesive doesn’t cover the outer 2" - they will most likely get trimmed off anyway.

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ummmm…I don’t understand anything you said. I keep thinking this must be about cooking/bbq…lol

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Far less delicious, but less messy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F12wlkWvvY

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I have the same problem. I think the key is the word “baste”, which I immediately associate with turkey.
Interestingly, according to most online dictionaries, of which I’m citing Merriam-Webster


the definition intended here is the most prevalent (per the “I can’t find a citation, but recall it from elementary school and it appears to be ‘common knowledge’” rule that definitions are listed in dictionaries in order of most-commonly-used to least-commonly-used).
I find that very hard to believe…

Anyway, I like hearing about these kinds of experiments just the same… :+1:

Spray glue.
Sticking layers of a quilt together.

laminating wood for a cutting board, you have:

Wood, glue, wood, glue, wood. Clamp together to dry.
Sand smooth, then add finish if desired.

For a quilt that you “spray baste”:

Fabric, glue, batting, glue, fabric. Instead of clamping, you are stretching/smoothing the layers as they meet up with the glue.
Then begin the actual quilting/stitching process to permanently bond all the layers together.

In the “olden” days, quiltmakers would use big basting stitches to hold everything together until the actual quilting was done. In the 1990’s, safety pinning the layers together came in vogue, but stopping to pull out pins gets old pretty fast. The thing that @BarkingChicken and @sinless mentioned is a small version of the “”guns” used by clothing retailers to attach tags to a garment. Somebody realized that if the shank of the plastic connector was really short, it would be sort of like a rivet to hold the layers together. But it is not without drawbacks. @BarkingChicken had issues with the plastic shanks getting entangled with her stitching, necessitating stitch removal to extricate the plastic bits. Which is not a happy occasion.

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And @jast too
Re alternate word meanings

Yeah. Y’all have the same problem I do with:

“Spinning”
Me: yay, fibery goodness!
NOT exercise class :frowning:

“Wire wrap”
Me: yay, shiny jewelry, new techniques
NOT some electronics magic voodoo

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