I learned a cool way of basting a quilt from Sharon Schamber’s hand basting video some years ago. However whenever I have used it I found problems because the quilts I was basting were larger than the fabric she uses in the video and also because I only have a small table. You can see Sharon’s video here and below is my adaptation of it.

Basting a quilt on a small table – free tutorial

The first step is to mark the centre of the table with some masking tape, then line up the centre of the pressed backing fabric with this line both at the front and back of the table.

Then flatten out the backing and put a board across it to weigh it down. Lay the batting on top of the backing and smooth it down. Then lay your top on top of the batting making sure you line up the centre of the top with the centre of the back and the masking tape mark on the table.

Take the second board and place it close to the front of the table on top of the quilt top. Gently smoothing as you go, slide it until it meets the board that is anchoring the backing. Then baste from the board towards you starting in the centre and moving out towards the edges. Once you have several vertical lines of pins you can fill in the large areas between the lines.

When you have pinned the portion of the quilt in front of you pull the whole sandwich towards you until all the pinned section is hanging off the front of the table and the boards are close to you. Fold the quilt top forwards over the top board.

Then do the same with the batting. Slide the bottom board back towards the back edge of the table, smoothing the backing as you go. Remember to check the centre is still aligned correctly.

Smooth the batting back over the backing then smooth the top over the batting.

Then slide the top board back over the quilt top towards the back of the table until it reaches the other board. Smooth the quilt top as you go. Then you can pin the rest of the quilt. If you haven’t completed the quilt by this stage just repeat the last step until the whole quilt has been pinned.

Pinmoors

As you can see I used my make-shift version of the Pinmoors product. I have actually ordered some of the real thing which I am looking forward to getting. Catherine from Catherine’s Place is running a co-op on them. The price is Aus$19.25 for  a pack of 50 and Aus$36.50 for a pack of 100 INCLUDING POSTAGE! That’s a really good price, in fact its the best I’ve found and believe me I’ve been looking. If you’d like to join the co-op just sign up a the Yahoo group here or visit Catherine’s Blog Big Blue Shed for more details. I have no affiliation with either Pinmoors or Catherine’s Place I’m just sharing useful info.