Here is how I prepare a small quilt for quilting.
I tape the background fabric, right side down, on a flat work space. Tape the four corners first, then the edges.
Make sure the background fabric is flat and wrinkle free. When taping make sure that background fabric is somewhat tight. Next, lay down your batting, making sure it is smooth. Lastly, lay down quilt top, right side up.
Now you have a sandwich of your three quilt layers. The next step is to safety pin all three layers together. I create a grid with each safety pin being about 3 inches from the other pins. Once the safely pins are in place you can remove the tape from the edges. Your quilt is now free to move around without fear of you fabric moving out of place.
The safety pins secure all 3 layers temporarily so you can baste your layers together. You baste stitch your quilt in a grid in between the safety pins. Once this is done you can remove the pins.
Some might think, “When all 3 layers are laying flat, why not just baste the layers together without using the safety pins?”. Well, it’s very hard to keep all the layers nice and smooth and fabric seems to like to move around.
Putting together a small quilt in this method allows me to quilt without the need for hoops or stretcher bars. This also means I can take this quilt on trips. I just roll it up and unroll it when I am at my location. All I need is my quilt, scissors, thimble, needles and quilting thread.
Very nice. Cannot wait to see the final quilt!
Thanks for posting this! I would like to get into quilting and it’s very helpful to see your technique – your quilts are gorgeous.