kristakz

A question for longarmers who quilt for others. If someone asked you to baste a quilt for them on your longarm so that they could handquilt it, what would you charge? And what kind of stitch length & spacing would you use? I'm thinking (since I pin about every 2 inches) that I need to baste a grid about 2" spacing across the entire quilt. But I'm hoping I don't need quite that much basting.
Quick responses greatly appreciated - I have someone dropping off a quilt for basting tomorrow.

Charming

I have never done this before but I found this video on youtube by Sharon Schamber that might help you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzb3okmRhug

Here is another link that actually answer your same question:
http://www.apqs.com/baste-quilt-top

Prism99

A lot depends on the longarmer. Not all longarm machines have a basting stitch (and not having a basting stitch makes basting really tedious and time-consuming). I don't know about now, but about ten years ago local longarmers charged $50 to $75 to baste a quilt. Some longarmers will even baste with water-soluble thread for you if that's what you want.

In general, I guess I would opt for a grid 4" apart. A frame-basted quilting grid is going to be more stable than non-frame pinning.

Traditionally you would want to baste a quilt that is to be hand quilted with basting thread, not pins, as pins interfere with hooping. Pins are preferred over thread basting for quilts that will be machine quilted, though, because you don't want basting threads caught in the machine stitches.

kristakz

Thanks Charming, that second link was perfect.