Quiltack Hints

For Christmas, my dear pal gave me the Quiltack Quilt Basting System. The kit comes with the gun, a replacement needle and a bunch of tacks. The whole thing is easy to use and very well described in the instructions. 

Photo from Quiltack Website at www.quiltack.com

You essentially poke the pointy end through all three layers of your quilt, slide the tip to the side and hit the trigger. If you've done it correctly, you have a nicely inserted  tack to baste. I love this part. It is fast and super easy with a little practice. I basted a twin sized quilt in 5 minutes with much less strain and pain in my hands. I inserted a tag every few inches as instructeds. Previously, I had used the pin-basting method. It is fine. But, I find it time-consuming and I poke myself a lot. 


This system made quilting this quilt a dream. I did not have to stop over few inches to remove a pin. I didn't have to worry about how to get thread our from under the quilting if I thread-basted. 


I thought I'd share a few hints I've discovered. 


1) This system does no eliminate proper prep to baste. Your layers still need to be smooth and tight. I use June Tailor's Quilt Basting Spray when the weather is nice and I can open the double doors to our deck and work on the dining room table.

2) Yes, you really can sew right over the tags. Really. I use a Schmetz Topstitch needle to free-motion and had no issues when I went over a few of them. The thread is Aurafil 50wt (my fav!). 


HOWEVER, be mindful how you sew over them. The top photos shows the stitch dead center in the tack. To get this one out, I had to tension the stitch upward to remove the tack. Depending on what you are making, tensioning the thread may be an issue. 

The second photo shows stitching about 1/3 of the stitch. This worked fine. I was able to easily slip the tack out from beneath the stitch. So, if you can be mindful when stitch, you'll save yourself some stress.




3) I use nail clippers to cut the tacks FROM THE BACK. REPEAT...cut from the BACK. That way if you nick the fabric, you don't have a hole on the front (see Giraffe Baby Quilt). You can also use cat nail trimmers, but I find that the holes in the handles are too small for my fingers. So, the nail trimmers work for me. 


4) The instruction have you insert the tacks on top of your cutting mat. This works and is a good idea. However, if you have standard cutting matts (36x24) you have to do a lot of sliding around to keep this under your quilt. I don't have an easy solution for this one. But, bear this in mind if you use a frame of some sort for basting. 


5) When you remove the tacks, there will be lots on the floor. So, if you have a kid of the age to stick everything in their mouth (or a pet), be prepared to vacuum under your work area right away. That said, at least with a kid, these are small enough and dull enough that I'm not overly worried if my son manages to consume one or two...bad mommy.


6) You will have hole in the fabric after using the Quiltack. I had not problem with this and they totally disappeared after washing. But, if you are making a art quilt and won't (or can't) wash the result, you might do some testing. I think if you inserted the tacks along a seam line, it would be fine -- but I did not test this.


7) Off label use. I was making quick drapes for a friend and the fabric was a bit annoying. So, I used the Quiltack to hold the hem in place. I worked fine for the woven fabric I was using.


8) I used an entire stack/column of tacks for a 40x40" inch quilt (101 x101 cm) about 100 tags. So, if you quilt a lot or do big items, you will use a lot of tacks. But, it is only $17 for a bulk pack of 1600 tags (so that makes them about a penny each or $1 for the tack I used for my quilt)