Basting basics & beyond! Techniques to keep your quilts straight - Watch & Learn Quilting Show -14

welcome to hq watch and learn we're going to talk about basting basics today i'm christina whitney a studio educator here at handy quilter and with me we have kim sandberg another studio educator so kim basting yeah it's really important why because if we don't get our quilt on the frame square and straight to start with we are not going to end up with a square and straight quilt as a finished product so it is super important and i feel like a lot of people skip this step and i think a lot of the reasons why they do is because they don't understand exactly how to do it right so that's that's what we're going to help you with today is to show you the basics of how to do this perfect so let's start at the beginning yeah and kim you're going to show us how to start yeah so i've got a quilt top loaded here and the number one most important thing to do before you load the quilt is to measure the quilt and christina and i were talking about this earlier we both quote for hire and we have learned that you measure the quilt in multiple places you measure the top the middle the bottom and then you take the smallest of any one of those measurements and that becomes what the width of your quilt is going to be so why do you take the smallest rather than say the average if you take the average you're going to have to stretch somewhere in the middle and a stretched quilt top is not going to work because it's always going to bounce back to that size right and then you end up with hourglass shaped quilts so it's better to bring in the extra fullness and kind of ease that in and i'm actually i have a perfect example here to show you it's a good one it's a really good one we have a we have a little project that christina and i and kelly also have been working on here in the studio for a class that we're teaching and we are we each pieced this top and then we're quilting it our own way just to show some different fun ideas and uh one of them that i pieced is the borders aren't they're a little wavy so we thought this would actually be the perfect chance to show you how to deal with that because it's pretty common um quite often we uh we we cut our borders to start with and we don't take in for the fact that maybe our quarter inch seam was a little generous or other things like that right yeah so people cut their borders to follow what's in the instructions on the pattern exactly whereas the center that they're going to attach the borders to might not be the exact same size as what the pattern writer had on theirs so measure measure measure before putting your borders on exactly exactly so i've got my quilt top loaded here and i've actually got my center marked here with a pin you guys can see this pin right here and what i'm doing is using my centering measuring tape and christina and i both love this it has a zero point in the center and then it goes out by numbers both ways so i can actually lay this in the center and easily see what measurement i need to use and it is like 19 and an eighth on both sides so that that makes it easy i only have to remember one number instead of trying to remember like one and whatever on both sides so i am going to just note that and then what i'm going to do is take this tape and i'm going to put it up here at the top and i'm actually going to make some little marks right here on my batting i'm just using a water soluble marker and i'm making those marks so that i know that that's the width that my top needs to be now i want to lay down my plumb line and it is so important to do this and this machine i'm using has the electromagnetic channel locks on it which is really great it's going to make it really easy to make sure that i get a perfectly straight line because a perfectly straight line lets me have a straight quilt to start with so i'm just going to flip the switch here and now i'm locked in i can only move from side to side so i'm going to go ahead and take my stitch bring up my thread and then i'm just going to go ahead and start basting across all right so let's talk about the purpose of a plumb line really quickly so first of all it's so that we have that straight line to line up the top of our quilt so that we get that nice straight top yeah you have to start with it straight if you're not starting with it straight there's no way that you're going to end with it straight exactly and you don't want to stitch on the quilt to do the plumb line you just want to stitch in the batting with the backing so that you have that straight reference line so i'm actually going to just fold my top down i have my electromagnetic channel lock turned on so that i can only move back and forth across the quilt and i'm going to go ahead and take my stitch bring up my bobbin and i have my machine set on a basting stitch and i'm just going to go ahead and stitch straight across here laying down this plumb line and i'll turn this off so i can cut my thread i really like those electromagnetic channel locks so easy just to turn it on and off they are aren't they so great so great they are so great okay now i'm going to very carefully line up my quilt and this is where you want to take a little bit of extra time make sure you get everything lined up first of all i'm going to make sure that the corners of my quilt are right up against that little mark that i made right there on the fabric because that's the edge of where i want to have this set up and then i'm just going to go along the line here and make sure that the top edge of my quilt is pretty much lined up with that stitch line and i want to have the top edge so it is just right against that stitch line there so that you can keep everything nice and straight all right so i'm going to bring this down here move my needle so i'll be stitching about a quarter inch in from the top edge why a quarter inch because that way after i trim and square my quilt hopefully all of this basting will end up inside of where i put my binding on so i don't have to rip it out but if it if i do have to take it out it's going to be really easy to take out because this is this quarter inch stitch so it's nice and big okay now this is where it's going to start getting a little fun you guys can see that i'm getting into a little bit of fullness here and if you notice i'm just going to take and put my hand on both sides of the machine and i'm just moving along really slowly here and i'm putting a little bit of pressure stretching a little bit and i'm just easing in the fullness of this border here and as i get past that little bit of a wavy part it becomes a little bit easier and remember i'm the one that's running this machine i'm not going to run over anything right christina kim is being saved she's watching out for her fingers i am and i want to end up with this right here oh next to that mark look at that dang i did good i'm feeling good about that go over and see yeah how did i do there what do you think do you approve does that look good fabulous i think it looks really great okay so now i've got my plumb line and i have the top of my quilt basted down and it's nice and straight now let's talk about the next step in basting it's always to base down the sides we need to base down the sides and keep things straight and once again i have this mark here that i can line up against and i'm going to turn on my electromagnetic channel lock so i can only move back and forth towards me and i'll bring up my bobbin and then i'll go ahead and stitch down once again keeping everything nice and straight until i get to the bottom of my throat space turn this off go ahead and do this now christina as i'm advancing this how do i keep my sides straight do you have any good tips for that i like to use my centering tape right so i'm going to borrow that from you for just a second and i keep my centering tape up on my idle bar oh very nice and i just take um like you marked your batting i will just mark on my idle pole with a dry erase marker the left and the right side and then as i'm advancing i just want to keep the sides of that quilt lined up with the marks that i've left there okay so i love that so putting putting just actually putting it right here on the bar what a great idea i love that that's such a great and then it's always there it's always centered i don't have to make any adjustments with it exactly i'm just going to base down this other side okay i was going to make a suggestion but you're too speedy oh no what was your suggestion tell me so with that quilt that you're working on we have extra fullness in the yes so if you think about it when you're stitching if you're stitching down you're pushing everything down continually pushing it down so when we get to the bottom of the quilt we're going to have like this big saggy spot big pointy corners yes so when i have fullness in my borders i like to start at the bottom oh right and work my way up easing the fullness in for that section so i'm easing the fullness in throughout the quilt rather than ending up with a whole bunch down at the very down at the bottom yeah have you have you all ended up with a quilt that's got kind of a frowny face at the bottom right where it comes down and then you have to you know just trim it off and hope it looks okay but actually if you follow these tips and christina's exactly right i was going to demonstrate that thank you for reminding me sorry that's okay that's so excited i forgot so okay so now i have got the basics of basting i've got like my foundation of basting here but here's the trick i want to set this quilt up so that i am going to actually start quilting in the center i've got a design all figured out for this and it only works by starting in the center and going out i'm doing it with my pro stitcher and so i kind of have to fit the pieces together as puzzle pieces so i need to stabilize this quilt so i can go ahead and advance it and start working in the center so one thing that's really nice about the pattern i'm currently working with is we've got all these nice straight borders right christina perfectly straight but we are human but what i'm going to do is just put more lines across here and i just basting mines and i want to use i want to lay them about every probably three to four inches is that about what you do too um on mine that i've got here i did a one inch base a one inch base okay yeah i wanted to keep it together together but also really easy to take back out when i was done oh when you're talking about the stitch length that you did you did a one inch baste awesome i did awesome okay and i yeah go ahead no it's okay i think we both thought we were talking about different things there i'm talking about how far apart to put the basics but yes using a one inch basting stitch is totally great and you know what actually i could go up to uh i could go up to a half on this one so let's let's go ahead and do that but what i'm going to do is i'm going to just lay some more lines across this first of all i'm going to pull this pin out so i make sure and not i don't want to don't want to have that in the road and once again i'm going to set my channel lock so that i can only go back and forth and i'm just going to go ahead and stitch across is this is this kind of what you do too christina yes and using the channel locks like you are right now um you can actually manipulate the quilt top to make sure that it's staying square so yeah using your hand and just work it so that it is perfectly square there keeping everything nice and straight and it is really nice when you've got straight borders on there it makes it easier to be able to do that so and we would just keep laying these down all the way and then we're able to stabilize the whole quilt as we go across so and christina's actually got like i mentioned we're both quilting the same quilt she's got hers over there and why don't you talk to us a little bit about what you've got going on over there okay so with the basting that kim's been doing the basting basics you would only baste what's in your throat space that you weren't going to be quilting right so you would always baste the top line and the sides in your throat space and then quilt whatever you're going to quilt in that space and then advance and baste the sides you don't have to baste the entire quilt unless you're doing a project like kim and i are doing where we're going to be going back and forth quite a bit so if you look at this quilt i've already stitched in the ditch around all of the borders and the piecing and to be able to do that with my throat space i would just do a section of it and then i need to advance to get the rest of that section also changing thread colors or changing feet i don't want to be having to change every single time to fill that entire throat space right so i basted the entire quilt down before before i did anything else and then that way i can what i call my double dutch i love it i can roll it back and forth okay that way you can like for example load one thread color stitch everything on the clip with that one thread color and then go back work your way back and forth and luckily these quilts are really small but i've seen you do this even with larger quilts oh yeah it makes it it makes it really easier yeah i don't like taking the time to change my thread color constantly so i will a lot of times if i'm doing a larger quilt i'm going to do two thread colors i will stitch everything in the throat space in one thread color advance do the next throat space and go throughout and the sections that i'm not quilting i will actually baste in that section so if you look on this one i didn't have any quilting in this white area so i had basted just to keep everything in line throughout that white until i go back and do the stitching with the white very cool i noticed too though you talked about you did your stitch in the ditch so that's another way that we can stabilize our quilts beforehand right is doing all of that stitch in the ditch we baste everything down first go through the whole quilt do the stitch in the ditch and then it helps keep everything nice straight and square too yeah actually with this one i was able to fit this whole center part in one throat space so i didn't even bother basting that i just went ahead and stitched in the ditch for that section and just basted the other parts that i didn't have stitching in the outside but you started in the center on your quilt too right yep so i basted the top and then and then and then and then worked your way down yeah that's that's really cool yeah we had some comments on another video asking you know how do you do that why do you do that yeah so so that's why we are able to load the entire thing yeah i have the top on my top bar but once i've basted the entire quilt top onto the backing right i'm no longer using this top bar right it's not attached to the leader and that's what allows me to roll it back and forth if i still had it attached onto my top pole i wouldn't be able to roll it exactly back and forth especially as you're basting down within your throat space you can't go back yep at all so do what you can in your throat space move to the next one yeah when you're all the way through with the whole quilt you've basted the bottom then you can go back and do the rest of it and move back and forth exactly exactly that's so great so let's talk about some of the different threads that we use christina and i both have some of our favorites so a thread that i love to use for basting this this is actually called vanish from superior threads and it's a water-soluble thread and it's really cool because you stitch it all down and then when you get done you just spray it with your water bottle your your you know just the one you use for ironing just plain water and the thread disappears plus i love because i love using it too i use up all those little extra bits and pieces of bobbin that are left over from other projects and i make sure that the bobbin when i'm using this i make sure that the bobbin is going to be a different color than what i'm actually going to be using on the quilt so that when i spray that and i turn the quilt over because then you have to just pull that thread off it's really easy to see which thread needs to go and what needs to stay what do you like to use well i love using the different colors of threads and love using up my leftovers right but if you look at this one i just used the thread that i was going to be quilting with because that's what was on my machine right but i do normally suggest using a different color like kim suggested and then it's a lot easier to get that thread off and know what's the real quilting and what's not yeah and here's another question that i've been asked a lot of times about basting do you quilt over the top of your basting stitches or do you pull them out before you actually start quilting within the throat space it depends yeah me too if you can see here i actually popped a bunch of my basting out because i did try to go over it and the foot caught on it oh yeah so that catching the foot on the basting is an issue that you'll have to be aware of right if i'm sure that i'm going to finish up that area and get it stabilized then you know i will take the basting out before i quilt it okay but sometimes i'm lazy yeah me too me too it just it just depends it just depends so uh yeah that's the answer it just depends now what if you have a quilt that's got a lot of uh like curves or something like that i mean the ones that we've showed here as an example they have lots of straight lines they're the only anything angle in here is half square triangles christina has a project that she's working on so christina talk about how you would baste this one okay so this is a double wedding ring that's so great and i don't have a straight line to start out with nope so what i'm going to do is use the piecing as my my straight lines and so i would say i'm going to pick this point right here i'm going to put my channel locks on when my machine is at that point and then as i'm coming along i'm going to manipulate the fabric and make sure that it lines up perfectly with that same corresponding spot on every single one of the rings that is so coming across and then once i've got like that foundation there i can go back and base down these curves and i can do the same thing going horizontally yeah all right that's vertically vertically vertically and horizontally and um yeah and then do the same thing going on the curves after i've got the straight lines yeah quilted on there so so just remember sometimes that you know we did a plumb line across the top here sometimes that straight line is actually going to be inside the border of the quilt a little more especially when you've got a curved edge like that yup so i'm excited to see how this one gets quilted me too because this is just the beginning of it this is six blocks i have to do 56 of them i can't wait to see how this one turns out it's going to be amazing it really really is we'll have to do lots of videos showing what i've learned on this project piecing curves always interesting yes all right awesome so there's one other way that we can use the channel locks on here the electro magnetic channel locks that we want to talk about and it's actually on the quilt back here which christina did most of this one so christine why don't you tell us about this so this is our have yourself a merry little christmas panel and i used a monopoly thread because i wanted the thread to just melt into everything and use channel locks and i just have straight lines going all the way across it's so cool and i purposefully made them different sizes sizes so that i wouldn't have to stress out every single time i started a new line that it was measured perfectly yeah and it gives it a little bit more variety and depth and i i kind of like how that turned out and then after i got done with the channel channel lock over the entire quilt then i went back and did some embellishing put some chenille it on we've got some couching we've got glitter thread we just played with it had a lot of fun with it yeah i love that foundation though of those straight all those straight lines and these channel locks make it so easy to just straight line all the way across your quilt all day long yep so thank you for watching today be sure to watch next week when we'll share the tips and tools that help us in our quilting journey and hopefully inspire you too be sure to subscribe to our channel like this video and share it with your quilting friends have fun quilting this week

Channel: Handi Quilter

Views: 9,006

Rating: 4.9151516 out of 5

Keywords: Handi Quilter, Longarm, Sewing, Quilting, Quilts, Free-motion Quilting, Finishing Quilts, quilter, longarm quilt, quilting tips

Id: TG-95jCGabs

Length: 21min 36sec (1296 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 14 2020