Now thats a great tip! Will save me from pinning to the carpet when I dont use my table!!!

that is so cool! i'll try that myself, but I've lost my marbles! :roll: :roll:

thanks for that great tip...

2 questions:
--as an example of my minimal formal training... what do you mean by "after you tape"? I don't tape anything... should I? I do pin baste.

--is that you on your avatar? if so, you are one of those glaring unfairnesses in life; there are people with great looks and great brains too! Ha.. my own daughters are gorgeous (adopted so no thanks to me) one is smart too and the other is super-smart... (also no thanks to me). and as I get older, my doctors seem to be getting younger and more beautiful. So, now that I know it's possible, be honest, is that you?

cathy

LOL - yes, that is me in the pic.

i like to tape down my quilt back making it really smooth. i use gaffers tape but painters tape works just as well.

i tape down all the corners and the center of each side. if the quilt is super big i would even tape in more locations.

then i lay down the batting and smooth it out (like a nut) and tape it to the quilt back, then i put down the top and smooth it out (like a nut) and tape it to the batting.

then i slide the marble under the backing. it pops up the sandwich just a tiny bit so that you can put the pin thru with ease.

I still don't get the tape thing. What are you taping it to?

i tape it down to my kitchen table or the pool table depending on how big the quilt is.

it helps to keep everything really smooth and even.

i also use post it notes to help with registration marks when i want to line up certain things on the quilt back with elements on the quilt top.

i also sewn on my hanging sleeve while i'm quilting the sandwich and i line the bottom of the sleeve so that it falls in a border seam. this way when i stitch in the ditch i'm sewing down the bottom of the hanging sleeve.

then when i sew on the binding i'm sewing down the top of the hanging sleeve.

the post it notes help me keep track of all these landmarks when i'm laying down the other layers of the quilt sandwich and i can line everything up.

the piece of wood that i lay over the table to baste is also marked every 1/4 each but i find the post it notes to work better - i would forget the measurement mark - so now i just put a post it on the location.

Thanks for the tips :D

Hadn't thought of that one klue, thanks for sharing!

I don't have any marbles laying around and lost all mine years ago. I guess I'll have to go break my file cabinet! :lol:

I use notes a lot too, words and arrows. I like the idea with your hanging sleeve. I've been hand-sewing onto the back so the stitching wouldn't show in front. Since hand-sewing is hard for me now, your idea to align the stitch-in-ditch quilting, from the front, is going to be great! Maybe I can do that with the label too.

i sew my label to the hanging sleeve by machine before i set up the sandwich.

i also tuck scraps from the quilt behind the label in case repairs ever need to be made in the future.