I had this bright idea that I’d take pictures through my basting process yesterday but when I reviewed them later, I realized that they’re really too close up to get an idea of the way I do it.  The short story is that my friend Lisa (hi Lisa!) suggested this method for large quilts and it works really well.

The short story is I put 2 6-foot tables next to each other so that I have 12 feet in length to work with.  Then we originally bought two 12′ x 4″ x 1″ PVC boards from Lowe’s.  I wrap the bottom fabric on the first board, making sure that the right side of the fabric is closest to the tables and the wrong side is what I see.  I smooth and wrap until it’s all on the board.

Then I do the same thing for the top, only the wrong side is closest to the table and I see the top of the quilt.  From there, it takes a little maneuvering the first time to get this all in place but I get the bottom board situated and generally tape it on both sides first so that it doesn’t move.  

Then I measure on each side and make sure that I’m consistent as I start the pinning process, both from the quilt top to batting as well as from quilt top to edge of the backing.  Then…I pin!

I’m going to use the teal Superior 40w in the bobbin and the King Tut Cleopatra 50w on the top.  I’ll also use white on the top for stitch-in-the-ditch and for circles that I’ll quilt in the white sashing.  I may just do echoing in the triangles; I haven’t decided yet.