Many students have asked me about how I choose to quilt my finished tops. One of the questions that comes up the most often is, "How do you baste a top when it's bigger than your table?" I have a system that has worked for me with quilts of all sizes, from baby quilts all the way up to queen size bed quilts. The following pictures were taken when I was working on a recent lap size quilt.
First, these are the tools that I use when preparing to layer and pin a quilt top. I gather together my sewing scissors, blue painter's tape, a grapefruit spoon, and bent safety pins. It is important that the blue painter's tape be 3M painter's tape. Other brands will not work nearly as well (and I've tried several). It also needs to be the regular painter's tape, the delicate tape is not sticky enough to hold your backing in place.
I use bent safety pins, also called curved safety pins, like the ones shown here. The curve of the pin makes it easier to come back up through all the layers when pinning. It also helps to close them after you've put them in place.
To begin, I press my backing just before laying it out on my table. I use my dining room table which has two self-storing leaves. I open it up to it's full length of six feet before I begin to make sure that I have enough room to work. I lay the backing material on top of the table, aligning one edge with the long side of the table. I use pieces of the blue painter's tape to hold the fabric in place. I usually tear off pieces of tape that are about 3" - 4" long. Don't be stingy with the tape or it will just pop off the fabric while you work. I usually space the tape so that there is a piece every 10" or so along the side. Sometimes it's necessary with larger pieces of fabric to put something on top of it to hold it in place so it won't slide around while you are taping the first side down.
Once the long side is taped down, I remove any weights that might have been on top of the material and allow it to hang off the opposite side of the table. Then I tape down the edges along the short sides of the table. I gently pull the fabric so that it is smooth and ever so slightly taut across the table. If you stretch it too tight, you run the risk of the tape popping off while you work and once the tape is removed, the backing will spring back, causing the backing layer of the quilt to "shrink" resulting in a good chance you'll end up with little tucks and puckers in the front of the quilt after you're done quilting it.
The goal here is to have the backing held down securely against the table top so that it stays smooth and flat while you later the batting and quilt top, preventing any wrinkles or tucks from forming on the back side of the quilt.
Once the backing is in place, I lay out my batting on top of the backing. (I usually rough cut my batting to a size a few inches larger than the top before I begin this step.) Again, I start by aligning the long side of the batting with the long side of the table and the edge of the fabric. Working from the long side, I run my palms over the batting, smoothing out any wrinkles and making sure the batting lays flat. You can lift the batting to reposition as necessary. I allow the excess batting to hang off the opposite side of the table as well. It really only matters that the portion on top of the table is smooth and neat. The excess portion that hangs off will be dealt with in the second pinning phase. However, if you are using a piece of batting that has an unevenly cut edge you should take note of the position of the cut edge relative to the backing in the excess section hanging off the table. You want to make sure that batting will cover the backing when you eventually slide the top over to work on the other half. You definitely don't want to find out that the batting is too short in one spot and have to redo all of your pinning!
I always use cotton batting and once it is smoothed into place it generally sticks to the backing on it's own. It will have enough, what I call, "velcro effect" to stay in place without slipping. I usually pick one corner to where everything will line up neatly (lower left in this photo). This way, if I'm working with a piece of backing or batting that is small and it seems like things will be close, I have a good chance of things working out and I am less likely to have to start the basting process all over again.
Time for the top! I try to make a point of pressing my top right before I begin to lay it out on top of the batting. This way it is as flat as possible and I will have less smoothing and fussing to do with it as I layer it on top of the batting. It also helps to prevent any little tucks from forming or going unnoticed until it's too late. Once again, I begin along the long side of the table, but this time I make sure to leave a little space between the edge of the top and the edge of the backing and batting. About 2" is all you need. This extra space will give you enough batting and backing to accommodate your binding and a little extra wiggle room in case you need to smooth and re-pin the top if you discover you are getting wrinkles and tucks in the top after you start quilting.
When pinning, you should try to space your pins about 4" apart, or about the width of your hand. It is important to think about how you will quilt the top before you start placing pins so that they don't end up being in the way of your needle when you begin sewing the layers together.
I work in stages when pinning. I will place my pins and leave them all open until I am satisfied with the arrangement. Once they are all where I want them and I have pinned the entire portion of the top that is on the table, I go ahead and start closing them. I like to use a spoon to help lift the pointy end of the pin away from the table top, making it easier to close the safety pin. One hand slides the spoon under the end of the pin and rotates it to lift the point while the other hand pushed down the cover and closes the pin. You can see in this photo how the spoon lifts the top and layers just a tiny bit off the surface of the table, but not by much. While you can use any spoon you like, I prefer to use a grapefruit spoon because the little ridges along the serrated edge help to hold the pin and keep it from slipping while I work.
To check to see if I have missed any pins, I squat down so that I am at eye level with the surface of the table. Any pins that are not closed will stand out and appear to be much higher than the surrounding ones. This is much easier and faster than running my hands over the top, waiting to feel the prick of an open pin!
When you have finished pinning the first half, you will untape the backing and slide the quilt over to the other side of table to finish the second half. At this point I might take a moment to trim down the backing or the batting if it seems like there is going to be a lot of excess that will just get in my way. I begin the process of taping and layering over again by folding back the quilt top and batting to expose the backing material. I often find that I need to put something down on top of the already pinned part to keep the whole quilt from sliding off the table and onto the floor (see photo below). With the quilt weighted down, I will spread the backing out, taping it off as I did before. I generally find that I can reuse the same pieces of tape without a problem.
Next, I unfold the batting and smooth it out over the backing. I work from the side that has already been pinned, sweeping my palms away from the already pinned side and across the batting to smooth out any wrinkles as before.
I finish by unfolding the top, smoothing it out and pinning the remaining portion as before and then it's off to the machine to quilt. When you are working on quilting, if you are finding that as you work your way from the center out that you are starting to get puckering or folds in your top, don't be afraid to take out some of your pins, smooth out the top and re-pin before continuing quilting.
I have successfully followed this method when working on queen size quilts, the main difference being that you only tape down the backing along one long side and one short side of the table. In that situation, you are effectively working on one quarter of the quilt at a time. Another option that I have sometimes employed is to use spring clips with rubber tips (like those you might find at the the hardware store) to help hold the backing fabric taut across the surface of the table. I have most often done this when working on a particularly large quilt top. The downside to this though is that the clips can be expensive and if you have a table with a rounded edge, as I do, it can be difficult to keep them from slipping off the edge of the table.
