I love the pool noodles for basting. I use them every time I baste a quilt and the kids (3 and 5yo) love to play with them when I'm not using them! When rolling it on the noodle, I just use regular pins and stick them through the edge of the fabric into the noodle at an angle so the pin stays in the foam, much like you would if you were pinning a quilt top to the leader on a longarm. I've never basted so quickly!
I also water down my Elmer's a little bit and then drizzle in a zigzag from the bottle but I've found spreading the lines of glue gives me the best results. I use a plastic spackle spatula to spread it out - an old credit card would work too. I used to use my fingers but it was annoying to have one hand sticky while trying to glue and unroll, so the spatula works great! Easy to wash, too.