Loading large quilt tips?

[hbuchwitz]

When you load a very large (king) quilt do you baste the entire quilt before starting? Or do you baste as you go?

[LeeAnn]

I float it and baste as I go. 

[zeke]

I pin. I guess I'm old fashion. Just haven't go the hang of floating except on small quilts. Zeke.

[Quilting Heidi]

Depends on how much quilting there is.  Normally I start and finish an entire section before I roll forward however if there are going to be some dense quilting areas and I'm worried about it pulling in too much I would do some of the stitching, pin the snot out of it and roll forward to the next section.  When I get to the bottom I would finish the bottom and roll back toward the top.  I never float my tops I always use the upper bar to load my quilt.  Also on the backers for king quilts as I load them I roll them onto the take-up bar, then onto the back bar, then back one more time because I find that with that much fabric it can stretch out of shape a little and I don't want to get any sagging.  If I load it nice and tight and flat I won't get the sagging that can happen with the bigger backs.

[LisaC]

I float the top and batting only. I ditch almost every one of my quilts; and baste down the sides as I go. After the "bones" are ditched; and all four sides are basted, then I move onto the more custom quilting. I have done less than 10 pantos in my time, and those were basted on the sides as I rolled down and then basted the bottom edge before stitching out the last row. This works for me; I tried various ways; don't be afraid to experiment and find what you like best. We all do things a little differently and there is no wrong or right; just what works for us individually!

[Gator]

I float my quilt.  I baste the top, and then the sides as I go.  If there's a lot of puffiness, I'll sometimes use a few pins (I keep them away from the area I'm working, I have a bad habit of sewing over them).

[hbuchwitz]

Thanks everybody!  I usually float mine - I feel like there is too much tension if "I" use the take up roller in the front.   It's a panto (not a simple one but not too dense) and solid white front & back for this customer so nowhere to SID or do other "tacking" type stitches.   I think I will float it like I normally do.  I've noticed with the denser quilting that I should baste even smaller pieces before hitting up the dense quilting - so that makes sense for those who mentioned it.

[FloridaMissy]

I only float small quilt 24x24 but the rest I load on the bars.  I do baste the sides and pin baste everywhere.  I do a lot of applique quilts and lots of stitching around the applique and custom work.  We all find what works best for us.