Talking of basting...

I have tried out different ways of basting the layers of a quilt together  and still have not come to a firm conclusion although I have learnt from my mistakes.

I  have used ordinary pins and then hand basted but a smallish quilt took hours and hours spread over a few nights – enough said!  I have a quarter of a large quilt hand basted which I have now decided to FMQ so I need to add tacks and take out the hand basting.  Hand basting is so time consuming and its off my list.

I quite like curved safety pins if its a project I am going to quilt straight away.   I lay a large cutting mat on my dining table and then the layers on top,  hanging over which helps to keep it tightish.  I start from the centre and work out.  It is easy to push the pins through as I use the mat as a surface to feel and scrape the pin along and back up.

Another method I use is the micro tack gun.  Very simple to use, pain the arse to get all the tacks out but brilliant if like me you leave pieces ages before quilting.  The tacks do not leave big holes like safety pins do if left in for ages.  Plus I would need an infinite number of safety  pins.  I have the tool for removing the tacks which is very good so makes removing quick and I usually do it in the garden or the kitchen so then I can just sweep the tacks up – still a pain though!

I have been known to baste a top with curved safety pins and then micro tack as I decided not to work on straight away.  I think from now on I will just micro tack from the start!  Probably my second favourite gadget.