Basting — no not a turkey :) a quilt

One of the things that most quilters do not like is basting a quilt once the top is finished.  Basting a quilt takes work — you have to have a surface large enough (which most of the time means moving furniture to make space) to spread out the backing, then the batting on top of that and then the quilt top on the very top.  What I do is pin my layers down to the carpet, it holds it in place while I sit on it for hours on end with a long needle and thread and get down to work basting all three layers together so it will stay together until I get done quilting it.  Most of the time for large quilts I do not need to do this because of my big 3 roller quilting frame, I only do this for smaller quilts normally.  BUT – I have a large quilt on that quilting frame and I have made too many tops like usual so I need to do this one on my smaller frame.  It is a twin size quilt and it is for my granddaughter for Christmas this year.  I finished my grandson’s quilt last month – also for Xmas.  I want to get these both done and out of the way in plenty of time — I do not want any stress in my life and do not wait until the last minute!  Here are a pictures of me basting — this is a 2 or 3 day process as I only work for about 30 to 40 minutes at a time and then stretch out my back and do something else, then come back to it and work some more.  I should be finished with it tonight or tomorrow!  Thank goodness.  I did have one quilt machine basted once but did not like how it was done, the stitches are very long and my wedding ring set kept getting caught in the thread.  (and yes in the photo there is a coffee mug sitting on the quilt — this doesn’t have liquid in it but the T-pins needed to pin the quilt to the carpet)