Yay!  The quilting on the antelope quilt for my hubby is complete.  It is just waiting for the binding to be finished.  Then a quick washing and ready to post.  In the meantime, I have sandwiched the quilt I previously posted that I am doing for a customer.  I am calling it falling leaves.  It is gorgeous and is 72" x 72"   It will be used as a wall hanging for her bedroom.

So for sandwiching, I lay the quilt top down on the batting and cut it the appropriate length.  This batting is 50/50 bamboo-cotton.  I then open the batting and lay the quilt on it and cut about three inches from the quilt all the way around.  I don't find that a lot of extra batting or backing is necessary when free motion quilting as it does not tend to shrink much.  I have done a king size quilt in the past with about 1/2" on two sides and it worked fine.  The extra is more for handling than anything.  After I have the batting cut out, I lay the backing on my carpet with the right side of the fabric facing the carpet.  I tape one side with masking tape, bring it taught and then tape the other side.  I then tape the top and bottom, keeping the entire backing taught (not stretched, just taught).  Yes, I do use painter's tape and have been doing this since I started quilting so rather than pins, I find the painter's tape works best.  And yes, I still get on my hands and knees.  This was about a 45 minute process.  It used to go faster when I had my handy-dandy helper, but since he is now 18, helping mom sandwich a quilt is not on the agenda.  :)

This is how is looks at this point:

Now I center the batting, followed by the quilt top and smooth everything out so I am sure it lays well.  I then pull back the top and batting half way and spray the BATTING with spray baste.  Yes, I do spray baste rather than pins.  I find that the quilting is not free moving with constant stops to remove pins and I do not have a problem with the aeresol.  

I do, however, make sure the area is well ventilated.  That is an interesting prospect in the winter when it is cold outside most of the time.  The temperature this morning when I was sandwiching, was   9 degrees.  But the wind was blowing as it almost always does!

Once I spray on half of the batting, I bring it back up and fold back the other side and spray.  It does not take a lot of spray, just a nice continuous movement of the hand.  When spray, I direct toward the quilt, and that keeps adhesive from getting on the carpet.  Then I pull back one half of the quilt top and spray the batting and then the other half, and the sandwich is complete.  I spray the batting because I find it holds better and I really don't want to spray anything on my fabric.  After smoothing, the sandwich is complete.  I like to wait up to 24 hours before quilting.  It just feels like it has had time to adhere better.

Here is the spray basted quilt waiting to be quilted!

I actually couldn't wait and worked on it a bit this afternoon.     Before working on designs within each panel, I stitched in the ditch around the area and also stitched around the appliqué.

I will be adding some texture to the leaves as well with vines inside. 

I will be showing more tomorrow; have a great evening!