Basting Spray?

I get questions about this stuff all the time. You know, I’ve been quilting long enough to have seen the beginning of the basting spray movement. I bought some, I tried it, and I don’t like it. I used basting spray on a small lap quilt project when it was first introduced. It was very simply quilted, with a straight line grid across the quilt that extended into the borders, so it only took me about 6 hours to quilt the whole thing. Even allowing for the fact that in the last 8-10 years, improvements have surely been made to the stuff, here are some things you should think about before using it on your project.

• The overspray from the basting spray was EVERYWHERE, all over my floor and was very difficult to remove.
• Even in the short time that I spent quilting this project, the quilt top and backing were not sticking to the batting very well. Used on a bigger project that took longer, I can imagine huge problems.
• I washed the quilt as instructed when it was complete to remove the basting spray. Let me tell you, it wasn’t removed at all! I could still smell it when it came out of the dryer, just as strongly as before washing.
• Every time I washed that quilt for a couple of YEARS I could smell the basting spray when it came out of the dryer. The smell was a little less strong every time it was washed and dried, but what does that tell me? It took forever to actually wash out of the quilt.

Basting spray is a chemical, people, and you don’t know what it will do to your fabric over time, especially if it doesn’t wash out as advertised. I say use caution.

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