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Once your quilt top is complete, you are ready to baste and quilt your quilt.
Depending on the size of your quilt, this can be an easy project, or a little more challenging. Regardless, the process is the same if you are going to baste the quilt layers using pins, thread or those little plastic tabs.
If you are going to use spray basting, the process will be a little different because you will be basting as you layer your quilt. The concept is still the same.
And the critical element is to make sure that all of the layers in your quilt are smooth, and all of the puckers are gone before you baste it and quilt it.
Find a flat space large enough to lay your quilt on. It could be a bed, or floor, or table at a church or local quilt shop. I also like to place something relatively flat under my backing. My cardboard dressmakers' board is great.
Smooth the fabric as much as possible. It doesn't need to be perfect, but the smoother you can get each layer, the smoother your quilted quilt will be.
Some quilters are fortunate enough to have a stretching/basting frame. This allows them to stretch each layer and get all of the wrinkles out. It also is nice because it allows you to stand and walk around the frame as you baste – not crawl on the floor or stretch across the bed.
Next place a piece of batting on top of the backing. The batting should be larger than the quilt top, but doesn't need to be as large as the backing. generally I trim both the batting and backing together, so they do end up almost the same size.
I usually have my batting and backing be about 2 inches larger than the quilt top on all sides.
Neither the batting nor the backing needs to be trimmed perfectly; they will be trimmed after the quilting is complete.
Smooth out each layer – backing and batting – making sure there are no wrinkles or tucks. Now place the quilt top on the batting, right side up.
The right side of your backing faces down and the right side of the quilt top faces up.
This means that both “right” sides of your quilt will be facing out, and all of the seam allowances are inside the quilt layers.
Once your quilt is layered, you are ready to baste it for quilting.
Happy Quilting!
Penny Halgren
Master Quilter
