Basting Day

 It's Basting Day here in my craft room.  I spray baste my quilts because a) it's easier, b) my husband has a hate/hate relationship with my pins, and c) did I mention how much easier it is?  The first lesson I learned about spray basting is that everything needs to lay flat, so I iron everything including the batting to make sure that wrinkles have been removed.  About 4 days ago I started using spray starch to keep my blocks from shifting around.  I usually spray the blocks before I have squared them up and before I have attached them to the sashing and/or other blocks.  In the case of the Pink/Purple Jacob's ladder Quilt here on the left, I starched the whole top.  A moment here to tell you what a difference the starch has made!  Now I have not yet machine quilted my tops that have been sprayed with starch, but I can tell you that block assembly and squaring them up is a whole lot easier.  I learned this little tip whilst putting together the scrap blocks together for the Quilting bees I am/was a part of (my part is finished). 

In the corner are three more quilts basted and ready for machine quilting.  The quilt standing up measures at 50"X50" and so I used an empty upholstery fabric tube to keep it from wrinkling.  Both my second Jacob's ladder quilt (Pink/Yellow) and my attempt at modern quilting (bright colors/black) are measuring at 40"X40".  I tucked them both onto empty cardboards for a regular bolt of fabric.  I already like these storage methods better than the fold and stack on my desk method.  Especially since I have someone coming over tonight that needs a hand with a quilting project (a scrap quilt using her son's old clothes).  I like to baste a couple quilts at a time; today I worked on both of my Jacob's ladder quilts.  Since I just have a regular, cheap sewing machine, it takes a lot of arm strength for me to machine quilt.  I am trying to get projects ready for my good days and hopefully soon, I will be all better!  Since the basting spray can be sticky if one gets it on themselves (and I almost always do), you can do clean-up for multiples rather than having to clean up after each individual project.