So, let's face it - you've never met anyone who likes the basting part of quilting, have you? I've gotten used to spray basting in the last month and thoroughly enjoy it when I compare it to the experience of pin or thread basting. As recommended by a veteran spray baster about 5 months ago, I bought 4 cans and have used them all with outstanding results. On the TQS website, there were recently some videos by Patsy Thompson about using 505 spray adhesive and that's the baste I'm using also. Patsy made an excellent video about how to use the spray with a quilt on a wall, and I'd like to share with you how I use my table, since I have no wall big enough.
I have a room in the house that, once upon a time, was actually a spare bedroom complete with guest bed and double closet. As time passed, and guests were few and far between, it gradually became my stash and quilt supply storage room and the bed is long gone. I took the closet doors off, and the hanging rod out, and for a long time this heavy metal rod was leaning in a corner of said closet. Until yesterday. I was wracking my brain to figure out a way to spray baste on the table, and when I've tried to do it a section at a time, without any tools, I had to constantly smooth out wrinkles. In this first picture, you can see that I'm ROLLING the quilt top on the rod, and it worked out wonderfully. Please keep in mind that I'm working with unusual fabrics that might cause a quilter some problems - the batting is actually fleece, and the backing is flannel. I began by centering the top on the fleece and then rolling it from one end to about the middle of the quilt.
I then sprayed the adhesive all over the exposed 'batting'.
When I carefully rolled the top off the rod, the weight of the rod helped me to press the cotton fabric to the sprayed fleece and voila! The top was basted in a fraction of the time. I did the same with the flannel backing, using a bit more care to keep the stretchy flannel fairly taut on the rod, and I was machine quilting within an hour, with no pins to remove!
