Quilt Basting, and a Product Review

Today I'm preparing to baste my QOV (Quilt of Valor) quilt. It's cool outside so we tried a set-up in the family room, which works, if I'm not planning any other activity for the next few hours. See this clamp? from DH woodworking tools? It works well, depending on the underneath table configuration. See the little C clamp in the next photo? T'ain't work a tinker's darn! Too small, too tedious, the flat area is too small. The orange clips work well, but one needes muscles, and they only work in corners of my table - again, this all depends on how your table is built underneath.

This is the product I've been wanting to try - a Dritz Basting Gun. As I am allowing myself the pleasure of an occasional manicure in my Senior years, I find the safety pin method is very hard on store-enhanced nails -- maybe this gadget is gentler and will do the job.

First, it comes with 500 little red tabs, and one needle. I used almost all of them on a 60 x 80 inch quilt, so I would recommend having a few extra packs of the tabs. Cost of the gun at JoAnns with 40% coupon was about $23.00.

It is suggested one purchases the grid that goes under the quilt, on the table, so you have something to press the gun against. Or you could reach under the quilt and press the fabric against the gun (ugh). JoAnns did NOT have the grid, and I couldn't find who had one. I THINK it may resemble honeycomb grid, about 1 inch tall, and maybe 12 inches square, that will slide around the table under the quilt -- think lighting accessories?.

We had started with a single cooling rack,
but eventually found it was NOT high enough. (Dorky Elaine, you have to have the rack TALLER than the length of the needle!! )

We discovered that 2 gridded cookie cooling racks, when stacked, were about 1 inch tall, that worked reasonably well.
We glued a little block of wood to the center of the cooling rack to keep the center from smooshing down when I pressed the gun against the quilt.

Some people are afraid the little tags will make holes in the quilt. (below) However, the tags are very slender, and much less 'catchy' than safety pins. I've run over then with the sewing machine with no notice at all. But the needle IN the basting gun is larger and therefore leaves a hole which I am sure will disappear with a bit of mist. I would NOT use it on tightly woven fabric, like batik. I presume you would carefully snip them off as you quilted along, merely brushing the little pieces to the floor.

We each had a good 2 hours of frustration, getting the 'hang' of this gun, so my expected time of 2 hours for basting, took about 4. When it worked it worked great, and I could just shoot, shoot, shoot, scooting the rack along under the quilt. Not sure what happened, but we both met our level of frustration. (And we did NOT study the instructions - kinda glossed over them.) DH had better luck with it than I, which I eventually learned was muscle! It was hard to tell when it was time to pull the trigger HARD. Kinda sloppy feeling.

We are hoping this was another one of those learning experiences, and I AM planning to use it again on the next quilt, when I get more tabs.

I had the BEST luck around the quilt edges when I just held the fabric in my hand and pressed the gun against the fabric. Click, click, click, about 20 times in a row, all perfect!

A bunch of the plastic tabs ended up on the floor, and this might be dangerous if one had pets. Would cats eat them? They vacuumed up well.

What I/we did NOT like was the fiddling when the gun jammed, taking the needle out, and setting it back in, dropping it, the little button that held the needle IN would fall OUT of the gun. Was this our learning time? Maybe it was our fault? I came from a family where good tools were important. I felt this gun was a little clunky - it would be really great if it was made better, you know, with more heft, better "feel." I might make that suggestion to Dritz. I wonder what the stores use for marking garments, etc.?

So, all this explanation is what kinda works/doesn't work for me for my basting system! I wonder if each of you who baste their quilts at home, go through a similar trial and error system! 8-)) I have not tried Sharon Schamber method with the 2 x 4 -- another time maybe. This project wore me out.

Hope you all have lovely family Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for all of YOU and thankful to Blogger for giving us this wonderful opportunity to share our pleasures.