I am going to show photos of my favorite way to baste quilts. I think it is the easiest and fastest method ever. I actually wrote a book on the subject. Bari’s Book of Quilt Basting & Batting Basics. There are lots of tools and many different ways to baste a quilt, but this one is my favorite.
If it’s a small quilt, I can use my cardboard folding table, leftover from about 50 years ago when I made clothing. You can also use this method on the carpeted floor-sticking pins directly into the floor.
Press the backing and top. Pin the back to the surface (pretty side down) making sure it is flat and smooth.
Layer the batting on top of the back, moving your pins to the batting and going through the back to your pinning surface. Then layer your top, pretty side showing. Move your pins so that all three layers are secured, flat and smooth, not stretched.
Now you are ready to baste. On a small quilt you can use either MicroStitch, also known as decoTak Lite, or QuilTak to secure your layers before quilting. You can go to https://www.quiltak.com/ or http://www.decotak.com/ to learn more about these products.
Unpin one edge of your layers and put your hand under the quilt. Insert the needle of the tool making sure there is room for the needle to discharge the tak under the surface of the quilt layers.
Now is where pictures work better than words.
Baste about every 4-5 inches going across the quilt in rows. Remove pins from the sides of the quilt as you baste each row. Fold the quilt-don’t roll-as needed to get to the next section for basting.
You can zoom in on this photo to see the MicroStitch taks better. They are tiny, be careful when you remove them after quilting your project.
This Dancing Chickens Wall Quilt is now ready for machine quilting. I am looking forward to playing with the design with thread. More photos when it’s done.