Hi I am a machine quilter I do all mine pushing the fabric around under the needle (not moving the machine over the quilt) I usually pin or spray baste. I don't like to hand base, it takes too long and if you sew over your basting stitches they can be very hard to get out. The first thing I recomend if you are going to be doing a large quilt is to get your machine into a flat top cabinet or table. I find it almost impossible to quilt with my machine on top of a table. The quilt does not move the way I want it to because I cannot possition my hands to control it going up and over the bed on a table top. It does need to be pretty good size ( mine is 36 x 54) to support the weight of the quilt, you can really wear your self out struggling to manuver a quilt around without proper support. I am out of time, but will share an inexpensive idea for building your owan table that has worked well for me as well as several of my friends in our quilt group.