Does basting an entire quilt before quilting it cause any problems?

[kbaumbusch]

I've read posts on whether people baste an entire quilt or not, but I was taught to baste as you advance.  I've often thought it would maybe be faster to just baste the whole thing before quilting it but I was afraid that as the quilt draws up during the quilting process it could cause problems.  Any advice?

[tootsquilts]

Well, I'm not a pro by any means, but I never baste a quilt, unless its something that is out of kilter, or I am needing to for something special.  I just start quilting after getting it set up on my frame.  I'm sure some of the pros will let you know what they do, but sounds like it would be more trouble than its worth.

[Gail O]

If you plan on rolling the quilt back and forth, because you are changing thread colours or repeating a particular motif in different areas, basting keeps everything squared up.  If a quilt top is particularly "wonky", basting allows you to distribute the wonkiness evenly, so that you can minimize pleats.  Not much different than when you do all the SID before the rest of the quilting.

[quiltmonkey]

On 2/8/2019 at 8:42 AM, kbaumbusch said:

I've read posts on whether people baste an entire quilt or not, but I was taught to baste as you advance.  I've often thought it would maybe be faster to just baste the whole thing before quilting it but I was afraid that as the quilt draws up during the quilting process it could cause problems.  Any advice?

If I plan to quilt different sections as I go, I use corsage pins to baste my quilt in those sections (as I advance along)

[Gator]

I baste the top, sides and bottom as I go.  I float all my quilts.  If I'm doing custom, I will do like quiltmonkey and use corsage pins to baste around the area I'm working.   Hand quilters will have us longarmers baste their quilts to save them the time of pin basting.