Birdhouse Quilt Update 5/basting

We rushed on Thursday to get the bottom and top of the quilt finished http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2012/02/birdhouse-quilt-update-4the-back.html
We needed to get it basted on Friday so we could start the hand quilting on Saturday.  Our deadline is February 28, Marie's surprise 50th birthday party is March 1st.  I know this is a terrible picture of me.  My mom was in town that day and I had been gone since 7 that morning and we were meeting at 7:30 at church to do the basting.  I was literally gone from 7 am to 9:30 pm that day!

Here is a better picture of the back of the quilt.  It's huge!  We laid it on tables because we thought it would help save our backs and knees from crawling on the floor.

First I took the back and layed it upside down on the table.  I used painters tape to tape it to the table keeping it as smooth and taut as possible.

Daniel walked in as Kristi and I were laying out the batting on top of the quilt back and we recruited his help for the moment.  He was embarrassed about me taking a picture of him "sewing".  The batting was not quite wide enough so Skye cut and sewed it together to make it big enough.  You want the batting to be bigger all around than the quilt top.  You will trim it after you quilt.  Also, if you are using cotton batting, it is a good idea to wash it first in case it shrinks.

You need to start the basting in the middle of the quilt and smooth out as you go.  This will prevent lumps and tuckers in your quilt when you quilt.  The only problem is that neither Kristi nor I wanted to crawl on the tables to reach the middle.  Ashleigh walked in and got recruited for that job.

Valerie took over after she left.

Kristi and I were smoothing and basting on opposite ends from each other.  I use special bent quilting safety pins for my basting.  The big ones.

Go ahead and buy the big bag or several small bags because you will need them all!  We ran out and had to use straight pins and I kept stabbing myself as I was smoothing the top down.  
When we finished basting it, we took the tape off rolled each end to each other and put it on the quilting loom ready for the next day.  I'll have another blog post about the hand quilting.
Here is another post about the quilt http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2012/01/birdhouse-quilt-update-2.html
http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2012/01/birdhouse-quilt-progress.html
I'm going to my friend Joeann's house to do some more hand quilting on Tuesday.  Have a great day ya'll!
Missy