Basting your quilt is such an important step in making sure your
finished quilt is flat without wrinkles or puckers on the front of the
quilt or the back. The first thing to insure a flat quilt is to totally
immobilize the back of the quilt before you lay the batting and quilt
top on it. To do that, I use two 30” x 96” tables pushed together to
give me a total basting surface of 60” by 96”. I secure the quilt back,
wrong side up, to my tables by using office binder clips (there are also
clips specifically made for this use available in quilt shops) all the
way around the edges of the tables, making sure the quilt back is taut,
but not stretched. To do this, you will need about 3 dozen 2” clips to
secure the back about every 12”. If my quilt back- ing is smaller than
the surface of my tables, I secure two or three edges (depending on the
size of the quilt back) with the clips and the other edge(s) with
masking tape.
Basting with safety pins has become the accepted
way to get your quilt ready for machine quilting. Thread basting is not
strong enough to hold the layers together through the machine without
shifting and the thread can also get caught on the toes of your presser
foot, creating puckers in your work.
I've been using the Kwik Klip for many years to help with my pin basting. I have one in my travel kit that I use when I do demonstrations and another at home for when I pin up a quilt. The one I use at home has all the printing worn off because it's been used so much!
One of the things we learn as kids is to hold tools in our dominant hands, so using the Kwik Klip was a little counterintuitive for me. I'm right handed and I hold the Kwik Klip tool in my left hand, leaving my right hand free to manipulate the pins.
Here's a quick, well, clip to show you how to use it.
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