Basting The Day Away

I finished basting my very large black piece of canvas yesterday and that got me thinking. I know I've said how much I hate basting. I used to think it was a waste of time. 

I don't think that anymore. 

It would be a waste of time to baste every single project. 

But there are some that just beg to be basted. 

Here's a piece of linen I started basting. This is the first piece I ever used the "special" red basting thread on. The silly directions for this piece actually want you to baste a 10 x 10 grid on your fabric. Unnecessary, I say. But I didn't figure that out until I started. What I will continue to do on this piece is baste the middle lines and the outside lines. And then I think I can take it from there.

Here's my black canvas basted for From Molehill to Mountain (more on this piece later - maybe tomorrow or Saturday.) When I say large, the canvas is 
18" x 22". I wanted more length so the canvas is wrapped around the stretcher bars on the 18" ends. You can see in this photo that the left hand side of the photo has no tacks on the top yet. It is tacked on the underside. This will give me the two extra inches I'll want when it comes to framing. 

Tonight, as it's meeting night,  I'll have to decide if I'm stitching this piece from this side or from the other side. Advantages for this side:  easier to use a laying tool. Advantages for stitching in the ditch:  easier to end threads closer to the stretcher bars.

Here's my "special" red thread. This is easy count guideline. It's a plastic type of thread like fishing line or certain beading threads. My ends are just cut off near the edge of the canvas. The advantage this has over regular sewing thread, is that I can't pierce this stuff with a needle, making it easily removable.  

How do I baste? I go over four threads and under six threads. This gives me an easy count to ten. 

So if a project calls for basting, I will consider doing it. I know enough to know when it will make my life easier. And when it would be a waste of my time.