How to Spray Baste a Quilt on a Design Wall

(Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I make a small commission if you buy from them, at no additional cost to you. Rest assured that I only recommend products that I know and love.) I hate basting quilts. All that crawling around on the floor and either pinning or spray basting–not my favorite part of the quilting process. However, now that I have my new, handy-dandy design wall–the process is much easier! Though most of it is common sense, I thought I would go through the process that I described on this podcast.

Step 1: Place the quilt back, wrong side up, on design wall and smooth carefully.

Step 2: Lay out an old sheet outside and place the batting on top. Spray the batting with spray baste. I use this one. (Sorry for the not great pics–it was a very sunny, windy day.)

I like to mark the vertical center of the batting with a pin, to make lining it up with the center of the quilt back and quilt top a bit easier.

Step 3: Bring the batting inside and place it sticky-side down onto the quilt back. Line up the pin with the vertical center of the quilt back. I usually have a seam that marks the center of the quilt back–so that part is easy. Smooth it out carefully. I find that a quilting ruler is a great tool to smooth out the layers.

Step 4: Repeat with the quilt top. Place it wrong-side up on the sheet and spray baste it thoroughly.

(Do your best to keep your dog off it.)

Step 5: Place it sticky-side down on the quilt batting matching up the vertical centers (which you have handily marked with a pin!).

Smooth carefully. Again, I find a quilting ruler handy for this.

Step 6: This part is optional, but I like to press my quilts after they are spray basted. Since I made this design wall from insulation board, I was able to just iron it right on the wall! Then I took it down and ironed the back on the ironing board.

That’s it! It just took about 10 minutes and was so much more enjoyable than crawling around on the ground!

Pin it for later: