Now, I don't need to pin baste because I have the HQ16. I used to pin the backing layer, right-side down, of course (though I learned that the hard way at least twice!), directly through the carpet and its padding with large t-pins. Once that was square, I layered the batting and the top. I used 1-1/2" pins and closed with the quick Klip which made the pinning so much easier. I also used to close the pins all at the same time, a quarter of the quilt at a time.