Basting with boards

After my double knee replacement surgery, I can’t get down on my knees anymore to baste a quilt on the floor.  Last week I mentioned that I was going to try basting with boards, a method that would allow me to sit and baste.  We made a trip to Lowe’s and purchased two vinyl 1 X 2 boards instead of wooden boards – they were very smooth and straight.   

The boards came in 12 foot lengths so I asked an employee to cut them into 8 foot and 4 foot lengths.  I can’t imagine hand basting or machine quilting anything larger than 8 feet wide (96 inches), while the 4 foot width will be perfect for most baby quilts and wall hangings.  

I brought my large 36 X 60” cutting mat upstairs to the dining room table to protect the table and replaced the dining room chairs with my rolling office chair so I could roll from one end of the quilt to the other.  I had a little trouble getting the fabric taut enough to get started wrapping the boards, so I got out the painter’s tape and used that to tack the fabric to the board.   

It worked perfectly.  After that, I had no problems keeping the fabric taut while I wrapped it on the boards.  I followed the directions from this blog post.

I was all done basting the baby quilt in under an hour.

My verdict – I will definitely use this method to baste a quilt again.  It was quick, easy, and comfortable.