assembling quilt, back & batting
 

when it comes time to assemble your quilt front & back with batting, how do you do it.
I have spread it on the floor and penned it.
Has anyone put it across their bed to assemble?
This is the job I detest the most!

I use a double bed all the time. It's tricky because you have to go around and around to keep it flat, so I generally only do up to twin or throw sized quilts that way. It is a little hard on the back, too, so I need to take breaks. If it's a bigger quilt and I want to quilt it myself, I take it to our town's historical building which has some folding tables that can be set up to use. Your public library may also have a few. It actually takes less time to do that than it takes using the bed. I'm now thinking of getting a folding table of my own and storing it under a bed. I've been taking bigger quilts to a long arm quilting friend lately, though. She does a great job!

Floor in the kitchen. Its an epic pain but it gets the job done. (Also, the floor gets cleaned)

The dining room table. I place a safety pin in the middle of the back the batting and the front to make sure the 3 layers meet in the middle. For me it's way easier for my knees and my back.

I have a 6 foot folding table that I (well, sweet hubby) set up and take down in the dining area
as needed. Lucky you! it is in use--here's a pic.
I have just discovered basting spray adhesive! I was worried it would gunk up my needle, but no problems. I used to safety pin but no more! Way smoother and less time consuming!
I'll create a tutorial on the steps I have learned that are helpful--look in appropriate forum if you are interested.

I have a large kitchen island I use for assembling quilts. Saves my back and knees!! I have “trained” my husband to help with the whole process and spray baste, both of which help immensely. Average time to put it all together is 30 min...less if it’s a baby quilt and longer if I have to precisely position the quilt back due to size. Game changer for me!

I have a small house and the largest two places I have to work are my ironing board and my queen sized bed.

Yes, it makes a challenge but I've adapted. Bed is better than the floor in terms of me bending down/getting up, which I did do for years, move out the furniture and sweep/wash the floor and do my sandwich using cans of stuff to hold down the fabric.

I take off the blankets and pillows and lay out craft paper across the bed (these are the large rolls, three overlapping sheets cover the bed. I use those multiple times, I do replace if they get too much spray baste or otherwise get old but they last about a year. To make things even more difficult, I have the four posts to stick up as well as a foot board. So yes, I have to work in sections. Often I can fit the "narrow" width across my bed, that's a big help.

I used to have a large dining room table, that was nice, it was crib sized just set up and could be expanded. When I worked in offices I had conference rooms. Some people have use of a school or church with those big lunch tables. You can use the drape of the fabric as it goes off the side to help you keep things smooth!

I had long arm access I no longer have access too -- among my various concepts on how to get more of my tops finished I've thought about taking them to a long-arm-er to sandwich/baste, but I'm still too cheap to do that. Still hoping to find a home machine to rent a couple days a month, but with the virus stuff not expecting that to happen this year. So... me and the bed. We can do it!

Edit: I'm a spray baste fan. Going to try glue but haven't yet.

I am in the process of binding my first quilt, which I had basted by a long arm quilter. It is 85 x 85, so having it on a long arm frame really helped to keep everything nice and even.

That said, it was so loosely basted that I could not leave the basting threads on the quilt as the material shifted too much and made puckers even before I started quilting on my domestic machine. I left the basting intact on the blocks I was not currently quilting to keep them from "running off", and heavily pinned the block to be quilted. This seemed to work well, but next time I am going to try either the spray adhesive or the glue.

Before I had it basted, I tried the garage floor with painters paper taped down to protect the quilt, but what a literal pain! Good luck with whatever method you use!

BTW, if you have the space one of the most desirable things for temporary layout space is a foldable ping pong table. Usually kept in a garage, pull the car out and pull out the ping pong table and open it up, huge space and a good height for most of us! Doesn't even have to have a nice playable surface... Can often find good deals on Craig's List on things like that. Unfortunately, I don't have a garage either :(

I have seen people use the pool noodles. Go to YouTube and search for
using pool noodles for quilting
There are several videos out there.