Bench Basting my Quilt.

When we did major kitchen alterations 11 years ago I made sure I got one very long bench with no sink  or appliances in it. I did this with quilting in mind.

 I am now quilting my small Jewel Box quilt . Here is how I went about bench basting it.

 I lay it on the carpet to cut out my batting. from a larger piece.

 Using masking tape I smoothed out my backing fabric wrong side up. ( in this case it is a batik so made little difference ) and stuck it to the bench.

 I then smoothed the batting over the top and then the (flimsy ) quilt top over that . 3 layers. ( like a sandwich, hence the term sandwiching a quilt.)

 Using curved safety pins I then secured the 3 layers every 10 or so centimetres. At this stage I leave the pins undone.  I try and place the pins away from the seam lines as my first quilting stitches will be in the ditch.When it is pinned all over I rip off the masking tape and turn all 3 layers now firmly adhering to each other over.

 I check the back and adjust any pins by pining from the wrong  or backing side and feel underneath with my hand and take the pin I am moving away.

 I do this all over till the backing fabric is lying totally smooth with no tiny wrinkles. I then flip the whole thing back to the front and repeat the inspection for wrinkles.

 When happy it is as I want it I close all the safety pins.

 The sandwiched and pin basted quilt can now be moved around freely for quilting.

 So far I have done one half hour session quilting it.  I firstly stitch in the ditch ( seam line ) in one direction, then the opposite way width wise and lengthwise. This secures the quilt and some pins can be removed.

No wrinkles. No sore knees from basting on the floor.