You mentioned that you tape, spray and pin. I usually tape and spray, then turn the sandwich over and smooth the bottom with my hands. Somewhere in the process of the sandwich, the bottom kind of "grows"! Turning it over and smoothing it helps alot. You could still then pin if you want, buy 505 spray holds for months and months, and pins aren't really necessary if you spray.

I spray baste all of my quilts and don't have a pucker problem with the back. After everything is sandwiched, I iron both the back and the front. I have left quilts for months without quilting them, and they are still good to go when I am ready for them.

Thank you for the tips. It was definitely the back that needed smoothing after basting. I love the iron idea too! And if I can seriously get away with no pinning, I'd be thrilled!

I love using "Golden Threads" quilting paper for quotations on quilts. You draw on that, pin it to the quilt, and then quilt over the lines (I'm wobbly, so sometimes it's next to the lines!). Then remove the paper.

garment makers use a blue or purple pen. The blue disappears with water and the purple disappears in about 24 hours on its own. So I'd only use that one if you were going to do it then. I used a sliver of dial soap to put lines on fabric to quilt and loved it. Even when the soap would fade when the light of the machine would shine on the fabric you could see the lines. Worked great.

I use parchment paper like you use in baking rather than tissue paper for patterns. It is a little bit more sturdy so can take the moving about without tearing yet tears away from the stitching just as easily as tissue paper.

I mark with a Dritz water soluble dressmaker pencil (white). I mark my top before layering so the marking is smooth. I agree that at this point, a paper pattern would be the way to go. You could really even use plain computer paper if that's all you have; I've done it before.

I know it's not what you want to hear, but the only way I've truly been able to deal with puckers on the back is to re-baste that section/those sections. It most often is caused by pulling the backing too taut when taping it to the floor/table. All you want to do is gently smooth it with flat hands & then tape straight down to the floor. You should not need to pull before taping. Also, it helps to tape the top & bottom first, then right & left sides (or R/L, then T/B), rather than trying to tape corners as the corners are the bias.

The other thing that can cause puckers is not starting your quilting with foundation lines. Foundation lines (typically that's SID -- but on modern or wholecloth quilts, you may need to draw lines to divide the space) help to stabilize the quilt so it doesn't shift during the quilting process. If you don't want those lines to show in your final quilting, you can stitch them with wash-away thread (YLI makes a great product).

I know it's more work, but I promise it really is worth it in the end as you save yourself from having to rip out a bunch of stitching that just set the puckers on your backing fabric.