Quilting With Glue

Years ago when I first started quilting, before the internet and obviously before Youtube, using glue during the quilting process was not the norm. None of the quilting TV shows that aired on public broadcasting stations mentioned it, nor any of the quilting magazines. At least to my knowledge anyway.

Due to my disdain of using a gazillion safety pins or suffer with the final quilt having bunched up backing fabric, I decided to use a multi-purpose spray glue to “baste” the layers together. At the time there weren’t any specialty quilt or fabric basting glues that I knew of. Believe me, I had issues with using it. My issues were the gumming of the sewing machine needle and then there was the dreaded overspray. When I’d get too close to the edge of the fabric, any overspray caused such a sticky mess on my floor. Let me tell you that the sticky mess was a special treat to clean up (NOT). Orange oil was the only thing that worked to remove it. After a few times of using the “not for fabric” spray glue, I had learned how to negate those issues, but it was a pain. Finally after a few years of this, I stumbled across a spray tack glue for FABRIC!.

Fast forward to the age of social media, I discovered that some quilters were using school glue to baste their quilts. I did sort-of try that method. I glued the “lizard quilt” top to the batting and then as I was attempting to glue the batting to the backing fabric, I realized the back fabric was askew. Unfortunately it was too late since the glue was starting to dry in places. I will someday have to wash the half assembled quilt in order to remove the glue and hopefully save the batting to reuse. Some day.

Since that lizard quilt fiasco, I discovered using pool noodles to help me lay out my quilt layers for basting. If I had done that with the lizard quilt I probably would’ve been more successful with the school glue method. However, here’s what I didn’t like about that method. I didn’t like that sometimes the glue would seep through the fabric, leaving me a spot that I would have to wash out before it was sellable or giftable. I also didn’t like that it wasn’t so easy to reposition the fabric after it was laid into the wet glue. It seems to tear the batting up regardless of how dry or wet the glue is. I went back to using the “made for fabric” spray glue method that I was using before.

That was until…..I ran out of spray glue and I needed to finish a quilt. I knew from happenstance that the spray starch that I make creates a little “stick”. I had used it as a basting spray for smaller quilting projects such as table runners, but I didn’t dare try it on anything larger. Desperate times called for desperate measures and I decided to give it a try on the most recent lap quilt that I was making. It held through the entire quilting process! On the leftover pieces of backing and batting that was cut away, the homemade spray starch held so well that it was holding onto a fuzzy skim layer of batting. Huzzah!! I believe this will be my new method from now on.

Also with the most recent quilt that I finished, I used a glue stick to help hold down the binding instead of using clips or pins since my binding was a little more narrow than I usually like to use. After the binding was attached I trimmed away some of the seam allowance and when rolling the binding over, I was using the glue stick and my iron to set the glue, to tack it down for the final stitching.

Both the school glue and glue sticks are washable, as well as the homemade spray starch. They will wash out with the new quilt owners first washing. Not to mention there isn’t any sticky over spray clean up and they don’t gum up the sewing machine needle. Phenomenal!

Here’s the spray starch recipe that I use:
2 cups of water
2 ½ Tbsp of cornstarch

Mix and simmer for two minutes. When cooled, transfer to a spray bottle. Shake with each use. If the spray starch seems too thick, add more water.

I also add a few drops of Lavender essential oil to help keep the starch from going rancid, plus it smells really good!

Happy Sewin’ Y’all

M. Little