bigsister63

There are med size curved safety pins that are best to use. Do not use the big one since they will leave big holes. Also there is a thing called "Kwik-pin "(?) that will make closing the pins easier and save your fingers. Joanns sells it for about $10 but you can use a coupon making it really worth the $$$. (some people use spoons). I personnaly use 505 spray basting since the sandwich will really not shift. Also start from the middle and work out. Also alternate the direction of you stitching so help with no puckering. When you are say tacking what do you mean. Depending on the size of your block you may be able to do SID and have the quilting the correct distance apart. I ususally do SID with invisible thread so the stitching is not as noticible. If you need to do addition stitching such as diagona. you can use blue painters tapr. it is cheap and comes up easily and not leave sticky residue. The tape comes in a variety of widths so you can stitch lines on either side of it to secure quilting. Such as if you want lines 1 1/2 part use that width tape. If you want side by side lines than the tape is a good method. also another suggestion is to stitch on either side of the seams the same distance apart to secure. The package of batting should tell you haw far apart you quilting should be. Be sure to follow this recommendation as the manufacture knows best.