Quilts As Cordwood

We're stacking 'em up like cordwood here at the Three Cats Ranch. I'm talking about quilts, of course. You didn't think stacking cats was possible, did you? So I have to start right out with a retraction. Yesterday I said I had 12 flimsies for sandwiching. As it turns out, I was including the one quilt remaining on the quilts-to-be-quilted pile...this Lucky Charm quilt.

It's at the top of the quilts-to-be quilted pile now, and it owes its feature here to being at the bottom of the pile before. It all works out in the end, doesn't it? Even little quilts have their day on top of the pile.

Getting back to the cordwood, I spent all of yesterday sandwiching quilts...eight in all...and there are three more to do today. Friend of the blog, Quiltshopgal, asked me to say a little about my "sawhorse table" method, and so you can blame her for this. Let's just say it's one way to get your husband/partner to buy quilting supplies for you, thinking all along that they're for him.

Before I go on, I want to say that methods for sandwiching quilts are really a matter of personal preference. Each quilter is going to have his or her own favorite method for doing this based on physical ability, environmental factors, quilt considerations, and the like. What I'm about to say here is neither tutorial nor recommendation...it's just the way I do it, and it works best for me. You may have other ideas that work better for you, and you should just keep on keepin' on. I've tried thread basting, but found that to be impossibly tedious. Also, it was the one quilt I've ever made that ended up with puckers quilted into the back. Also, I've tried pin basting, but found it unacceptable for a variety of different reasons. Spray basting works best for me, so here we go.

To begin...get yourself a couple of 4 x 8 plywood sheets. Mike picked up some nice quality sheets that have been sanded smooth to minimize roughness and splinters. Set up side by side, they give me a workspace of 8 x 8 feet.

You'll also need four sawhorses. Mike uses all of these items for other purposes, and so we're both happy little clams, thinking all this stuff belongs to us. Actually, it belongs to me, but shhhhhhhhh.

It takes the two of us to set it all up. Then, because it's all been stored in the garage, the table top gets both swept off and wiped off to clean it all up before starting. I'm doing this in our garage. Living in a wet climate, it's the only way I'm going to be able to take my process outdoors. In a minute, I'll tell you why that's important. For now, just know that I work at one corner of my "table." Along the edges, I use bicycle clamps to hold the edges of the quilt back. At the far reaches of the quilt, I tape it down with masking tape...or blue painter's tape...call it what you will. This quilt was a nice small size and very cooperative. It only makes sense. There are cats, and everyone knows that cats are very cooperative.

The next quilt was a little larger. It only extended to the opposite edge of one plywood sheet, and so...

it's easy enough to slide the second sheet to the side, allowing me to reach the opposite side of the quilt back.

In just a couple of minutes, Going Bananas is a quilt sandwich. I'll probably quilt this one fairly soon because I know the Quilts for Kids folks are in need of boy-appropriate quilts right now.

Next up was one of the larger quilts. And, yes, if you've been paying attention, you might know that this quilt was a finished flimsy at Christmas in Tybee Island, Georgia, last year. So even if you're a big and traveling quilt, you'll still get your day in the sun. Just be prepared to have patience.

As long as we're talking about this, I might as well say something about my tools. I like these scissors especially designed for cutting batting. I got mine from Massdrop, and that was also the first place I saw them. I thought this was just another gimmick to entice me to spend my money, but actually, these are very helpful. They have a nice long blade, and they're shaped so that the blade slips under the batting while keeping one's hand position ergonomically friendly.

Pause here for a moment to admire the quality of my clothing. Yes, the cuff of my sweatshirt is frayed all the way around. Like gardening, I find this is a job best done while making one's worst fashion statement. I'm also wearing some old glasses. I worry a little about getting that spray baste on my current pair.

Like the bandaging scissors a nurse uses, the scissors have a blunt point. I like them because I can cut the batting to size after it's been laid out on the quilt backing fabric, and I worry a whole lot less about actually cutting into the fabric.

This is the product I prefer for spray basting. (The label was recently redesigned.) I've heard some folks use the cheaper Aqua-Net hairspray, but my preference is to use a product specifically made for fabric. I don't know if Aqua-Net is safe to use on fabric, and I don't really want to test that theory. I'm willing to spend a little more in order to worry a lot less.

And here's why this product must only be used in a well-ventilated environment...preferably outside. It's flammable, and besides, I don't really want to be inhaling it.

I've done my spraying with quilts and batting hanging from a clothesline, but found it to be too breezy to be very practical. I've also done it on the concrete under a covered patio, and that worked, except for all the bits of pine needles and leaves that get stuck to the batting. So now I'm in the garage where I have shelter from the rain, and where I can open up the big garage doors for plenty of ventilation and breathing room.

So moving along, the flamingos are ready for quilting now...

and the pumpkin pie...

and the cardinal. It was good to see him spread out again. I love this quilt.

Now here's where the shortcoming of this method really shows itself. The Dream Big panel was too large for me to reach the far corner, and yet too small for me to reach from the opposite side of my 8 x 8 foot table. Also, it extended past the mid-point of my two plywood sheets, and so sliding one sheet to the side didn't work either. I could smooth everything out, but I couldn't reach to this far corner.

In that case, I do what I can reach, and then unclamp the quilt and slide it toward me in order to reach the other side.

This was the largest quilt I needed to sandwich...and yes, it's been finished for almost a year as well. This one was so big, it covered the entire table, and so I used bicycle clamps all around.

I first smoothed everything out and used my handy batting scissors to cut the batting to size. Then, I folded back one half of the batting and the quilt top, sprayed the quilt back...

then folded and smoothed out the batting. Then I sprayed the batting, and then folded the quilt top over that and smoothed it out.

Then I did the same thing on the far side of the quilt.

When I was finished, I had one very large quilt sandwich.

I should say here that I always flip the quilts over and smooth out the back as well. You might find some puckers there. If you do, you can smooth them out working from the middle of the quilt outward. As the puckers work their way to the edge of the quilt, a good tug at the fabric will get rid of them completely.

And here's where quilts become cordwood. There's a nice stack of eight newly-sandwiched quilts awaiting their turn under my needle.

There are three more to finish off today, and I'll have myself a nice stack of quilts to be quilted in 2019. Smitty will appreciate the extra padding.

Things are winding down in 2018. If I can get the quilt sandwiches finished fast enough this morning, I'll get back to the McKenna Ryan farm and the cow. There's also a pile of laundry to do. You might say it's a day for working on piles...building them up and tearing them down. It rained long and hard yesterday, but today's weather is looking pretty nice.