"I am So Basted"

said my quilt today. Yup, I finally packed up the things I would need including the top:

and the back:

and got my quilt basted together. I've been ready and wanting to do it for a few weeks now, but stuff. But today it all came together.

I haven't been able to do it at home because 1. no space to lay it out and 2. so much mess from blowing insulation last weekend. So I packed it up and went to my church to use their large tables. I couldn't get three together, so I made do with two.

I taped the back of the quilt to the tables so it would stay taut.

I didn't pull it tight because I didn't want the fabric to "bounce back" when released. But I had to secure it from moving around and getting wrinkles or folds.

Then I laid on the cotton batting I was using:

I smoothed it out over the backing and didn't tape it down. The batting sticks to fabric like flannelgraph so no tape is necessary.

Then came the top:

I could easily line up the centre with the back because I had put the centre along the join where the two tables met. I methodically smoothed the top over the batting so it was lying flat and wrinkle free. Again, no need for tape.

And then I started pinning.

(and pinning and pinning...) I used my trusty spoon tool to save my fingers. It's ideal for helping the pin through the fabric layers and then lifting the end so it's easier to clip shut.

I only pinned in the orange zig zags. My plan is to quilt the grey zig zags first, without having to remove any pins, and then to quilt the orange zig zags after removing all the pins. The stitching on the grey areas will hold everything in place well enough.

That's the theory anyway. I figure it should work similar to how it worked out when I quilted circles on the crossed canoes quilt. (I quilted circles twice as far apart as I wanted, removing the pins. Then I could quilt between the circles without having to remove any pins.)

It saves a lot of time and makes the quilting smoother if you don't have to stop to remove pins all the time. I think it should work fine even if the pins are a little further apart than I would normally do them. All the quilting will be in one directions with the quilt fairly stable, and I'm not moving it all over like for free motion.

Once everything on the table was done, I folded one edge over and slid the quilt enough to pin the side.

Then I did the other side. And presto! I was done. It look me two hours. Any quilters out there--does this seem long or short to you? I'm curious, but have no idea.

The table height was adjustable and I moved them up, but I still had to bend over to work on the quilt. I think I was better off than my usually position (working on the floor), but two hours of standing and bending over is still pretty taxing. I didn't have enough energy to start sewing, although I had my machine in the car in case it got that far.

But I hope to be stitching soon...I would like to get this puppy done!