Sticky Business

This weekend, I finally made it to Edward's for all of the supplies I needed. There is a whole bunch of fabric in this bag! My goal was to pick up the things I needed to finish all of the half done or mostly done projects. Closure is nice from time to time and it helps me justify starting new things! Of course, I am not saying I didn't pick up anything else while I was there... But I am excited to finish up a bunch of things with what I got.

So I am back in Ohio today and I am diving right in. Most of what I needed was backing for quilts. I had a few tops lying around and just need to make it down the home stretch. So today, I am spraying quilts.

There are a few options when it comes to assembling your quilt layers. You can pin the layers together with fancy safety pins that are bent to make it easier, or you can spray your layers. I always choose to spray.

Luckily, the apartment has just enough floor space to spray together quilts up to a twin size. Anything bigger requires way more space. So here we go.

I finished the one in the background before I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures... luckily I have plenty more to put together. Here is what I need.

Here is my spray. There are a few things to note about this stuff. It can smell terrible (this brand does not) so you want some ventilation. It is way sticky so don't miss. Also, it is temporary, so don't spray your quilt way in advance and let it sit for a long time.

Now I use 100% cotton batting most of the time. This is truly just a preference thing. Something that is nice about this stuff is that it comes in the size that you need. This one is a twin size, but many sizes are available.

First, I vacuum up as much of the dog fur as I can, and then I lay the batting down first. (As you can see, it is a tight squeeze even for the twin size...)

Now I lay the quilt top on this. Since my quilt top is the focus of the quilt, it is easiest to spray it to the batting first and go from there.

My quilt top is smaller than my batting size. This is fine. I can always trim off any excess. After smoothing out the quilt top and making sure I have a bit of extra batting on each side, I spray.

By folding over about half of the quilt, I don't have to worry about completely starting over with positioning my quilt top. Once that spray is on there, it is way too sticky anyway. I apply the spray to the batting and smooth the half of the quilt back over the batting. I then do the same to the other side.

Once the top is sprayed on, I can trim off that extra batting. This way, I know exactly how much fabric I need to put on the back. Now I flip it over.

This is why trimming after the top is helpful. Since we are looking at it from the back, we can't see how big the top is. If I hadn't trimmed it down, I would have had to take extra time flipping it over and checking that my backing covered the correct parts of the batting and not just the extra batting. Since this is a perfect fit, I just spray it the same way as the top.

Here it is all sprayed. I have just a bit of the backing and batting hanging over the edges which is good. Things tend to shift and stretch as you quilt. This way, I won't run into any trouble. One thing I try not to do after I have sprayed a quilt is to fold it up. This can create weird bumps in the layers that are difficult to get out.

I have chosen purple thread for the quilting which will go well with the top and the backing. Now I am all set to quilt.