I like to heavily starch the backing fabric before layering, and also spray starch the top before layering. Starch stabilizes the fabric so there is less chance of distortion while quilting.
Spray basting holds everything together best for me when I FMQ, plus I don't have to stop to remove pins.
I like to start at one side and sew my way to the other side; the spray basting seems to hold everything together without slippage, and then I have no thread ends to bury.
Another thing you can do is draw a curvy line on the quilt top with a blue marker, and use that as the basis for your loop-de-loop FMQ. Here is a link to a thread about doing that:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/tutoria...g-t177072.html