GLUE BASTING QUILTS - DOES IT WASH OUT?

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I made a post a while back about glue basting a quilt while piecing, and followed that post up with how to glue baste a quilt sandwich. It was the first time I'd ever done it start to finish (from piecing to basting the quilt sandwich). (read more)

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WHAT IS GLUE BASTING?

Since I have written a post about this already, I won't go into too much detail. In a nutshell, glue basting means you hold quilt material together with glue, rather than with pins, tacks, etc. 

You can use glue basting for piecing and for glue basting a quilt sandwich. In my opinion, it will save you time, thread, and a lot of frustration when your quilt sandwich moves around under your hopper foot.

As a matter of fact, this is the first time I've quilted on my domestic sewing machine where the quilt sandwich didn't shift at all. 

It was an amazing feeling. 

If you'll click the links I've posted in that paragraph, you can read all about my glue basting journey. 

This is a post for how the quilt turned out after I'd glue basted, bound, and washed it.  

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IS GLUE BASTING MESSY?

This was my big concern. If you read the post about this particular quilt, you can see that there were spots where the Elmers glue dried in a crusty, white blob on the quilt top. Since the quilt is a wedding gift, I was really worried it would look sloppy. I finished it a month before I needed it, just so I could make sure I'd have time to redo it if I needed to.

​It doesn't show up great in the picture, but if you look at the red square up top, you can see Elmers dried on the black surround. There were spots like that all over the quilt. Either places where I'd added too much glue while piecing, or where I'd accidentally dribbled some while I was putting my sandwich together.

As you can see, I laid down a lot of glue, so there was room for error for sure. Look close here, see the waves of glue? That was all over my batting and clearly visible through the quilt top after I'd ironed it down. 

So, as you're basting, yes, it can be messy. But for me, the question wasn't whether or not it was messy at the time, but whether it would look messy once it was finished. 

I mean, if those glue globs weren't coming out of the fabric, or if you were going to be able to see the glue lines I laid down for the sandwich, that would have been unacceptable. 

Thankfully, this wasn't the case.

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DOES GLUE BASTING WASH OUT?

It does, 100%

As you can see, it holds the material together TIGHT once you iron it. You've got the ability to yank and maneuver as much as you need, and you don't have to mess with it in a certain time frame. 

This picture is me picking up the top and batting while just holding on to the top. It's strong, very strong.

I could have basted this sandwich and put the end product up on the closet shelf until I was ready to quilt it. The glue wasn't going anywhere. 

At the same time, if I needed to redo something, I could have put some water on it to dissolve the glue, though I would not really have wanted to do that. 

The biggest thing, though, is that once I finished quilting it and ran it through the wash, the Elmers washed out, entirely. ​

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The bulge underneath the middle part is a baseball, because I have kids and they do things like hide baseballs under quilts. 

You know, normal stuff.

Here's a picture of the back:

I really wanted the quilting to POP, but I was pretty nervous about using black. However, once I got it bound I felt like it all tied in nicely. 

Here's a close up of the quilting. I only do the meander pattern I learned from Angela Walter's book. It's so easy! If you haven't seen that video, it's here, or it's in my post on quilting on your domestic sewing machine.

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GLUE BASTING REALLY IS GREAT!

If you've been on the fence about giving it a try, especially because you're worried it might not wash out of the quilt, I hope this post has assuaged your concern a bit. 

I will say that I do NOT do quilt show quilts. All of my quilts are meant to be used, loved, washed, slept with, drooled on by babies, cuddled by pets, etc. 

The washing and drying was a major component in my decision to glue baste. If I were going to never wash the quilt, I would not use glue, there's just too many chances for dribbling or spotting. 

Happy Gluing!
​Ty

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