Springing into action

I think I may have a Spring fever. ;o)   Not the kind that has me cleaning the house from top to bottom (although I should be doing that, too).   My Spring fever is all about tackling all sorts of WIPs, thinking that the sooner I finish some of them, the better I will feel about adding new ones.

My largest WIP to date, is a king size quilt for our bed.  I started piecing this quilt top a year ago, then put it on hold until I found the right backing.  A backing has been found, so the past couple of days I've been stitching the blocks together and adding more pieces to make the top into a king size flimsy.

My living floor is just big enough for basting this monstrosity... once the furniture was removed... so now I just need to get that backing pieced!

The thought of pin basting a quilt this size already has my knees dreading it, but I have never tried spray basting and am concerned about any fumes created by doing so.  Any recommendations on that?  How much spray would I need for a king size quilt?  Is spray basting pretty fail-safe?  I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
One way or another,  I'd love to get this quilt off my WIP list.  This is the kind of Spring cleaning I most enjoy. ;o)

Comments

  1. Hi! That is going to be so beautiful! I was seacrhing how you have made it because I love all the deffereant sizes of patches! Great spring 'cleaning' - unfortunately I have 'emptied' the house today to clean well and I just want to quilt! Perhaps it's spring fever that I see blocks day and night and try to choose something for the next quilt (who knows when I have time for that).
    Have a wonderful week! x Teje

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  2. maybe get it professionally basted?
    just a thought as it's soooo big!

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  3. It looks fabulous and needs to be finished - have never spray basted sorry! Is there a large table you could use to save your knees?

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  4. That quilt breathes Spring! So beautiful!

    I have only used spray to baste smaller quilts and I love to use it. It works well with machinequilting, but handquilting is a bit more challenging as it can get sticky.
    I have never basted such a big quilt myself, I think you can use a pair of extra hands to help you. Take care with using spray, it will stoick to your floor and furniture as well!

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  5. I haven't done a king sized quilt in many years. I only made one, and it's been on our bed ever since then (maybe 4 or 5 years ago?). It's gorgeous, but annoyingly heavy. It's string blocks foundation pieced to old sheets, batted with poly batting and backed with flannel. I don't remember if I spray basted it or not, but I used to use spray baste when I was making quilts and I loved it. It used to be fairly inexpensive @ Walmart, and of course overly expensive at Fabricland. I remember it was kinda smelly and I had to be careful about overspray, but I don't remember having any problems with it. I need to get a bottle and use it on the baby quilts I'm working on now - it really does work well!

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  6. I only spray baste and mostly do large quilts. I love 505 Basting Spray. Tape backing face down slightly taut to the floor. Smooth out batting over backing. Smooth out your top face up over the batting. Carefully fold over half of the batting/top exposing backing. Lightly spray. To minimize overspray, work from edges spraying towards center areas. Unfold batting/top down - carefully patting and smoothing out working from center outward. It is re-positional so you can lift and reposition and smooth as needed. Then do other side. Next fold back half of top and spray top of batting now exposed. Unfold top back over batting patting and smoothing out as above. Then do last remaining half as above.

    It is super easy and foolproof if you are careful to keep layers smooth. The spray basting holds perfectly for machine quilting and causes no problems at all (I can only vouch for the 505 Spray though). Any overspray cleans up easily. There is a smell but it isn't obnoxious. If you can open a door or window, do. Doing this occas for a large quilt indoors is no big deal IMHO - but if you do many you might want to invest in two large collapsible banquet tables, scooted together outside or in the garage like I do if I have several to spray baste.

    HTH

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