answers

So the last post raised a few questions about basting with Elmer’s School glue.

Unlike spray basting glue from a can, you don’t cover the entire fabric. There are plenty of You Tube videos you can watch to see how it’s done. You only use a very thin bead of glue which is applied in a linear or zigzag motion to the quilt batting a section at a time.

Top Tip: No Blobs!

I made a few small blobs on the Ambleside quilt. I put a nice, new sharp quilting needle in the machine and it is sewing through everything. The thread has broken three times on  blobs so I was really careful not to make blobs on Jellyroll Roger.

No broken needles yet. 

What I like best about this method is that there’s no dreadful smell of the spray glue which gets on everything no matter how careful you are.

Q: Does the glue make the quilt stiff?

No. Both quilts are soft and pliable. Remember you are not using a lot of glue  - just enough to hold the layers together.

I’ve glue-basted on a cotton/bamboo batting and a wool/polyester batting. Both have worked just fine. The quilts fold up and I can leave them till I’m ready to work on them. 

Some folks use pool noodles with this method. My table isn’t big enough but with the pirate quilt I did use my clamps to stop everything slipping around. Made it easier to smooth out the fabric.

Probably best to trial this method on a small project, maybe a table runner to see if suits you. Since Ambleside is a quilt for me, I was prepared to give it a go and suffer the consequences.

So far, it’s quilting up nicely.  In the meantime, I’m prepping the walking foot machine to quilt the pirate quilt.