I cannot get on the floor my knees are bad.
I have a cutting table that is only 36 inchs wide but if I attach the quilt down the middle first and pin then I can move it to each side and reattach and pin. This has worked well for me. I use those white plastic clips made for holding quilts on tables with less than an inch depth. But the big black clips for paper work also but are bulkey to use.

http://www.sharonschambernetwork.com...ing/index.html

I couple of years ago I watched a video of this method and tried it on a baby quilt. I'm still an under experienced machine quilter, but have decided I can't improve unless I just finish my projects the best I can at the point I'm at. Have fun.

My suggestion is to have it done by someone with a long arm machine.. They can square it up for you and all you need to do is put the binding on.. Than start a new project.. Take a quilting class for beginners and you will be surprised at the great feeling and new tricks you will learn.. I don't hand stitch or tie my quilts that someone is going to machine wash.. and use...

WOW!! What a great idea. I have never thought of doing it this way before. I can't wait to try it. I, too, am apt to have ripples in my backing. Perhaps this will prevent it.

Sometimes my space is limited to lay out the quilt for sandwiching so I hang the layers (with pushpins) from my storage cabinets which line a wall. I then use the plastic basting pins. I love them! It makes it so much easier to hand quilt that I don't even have to use a hoop! Good luck!

I have only been quilting 5 years but have churned out 112 quilts & #113 is almost done and they are all nice sized quilts, only 2 wall hangings. I only pinned the first 3 or 4 quilts and have been spraying since then. I do not bother to pin once it's sprayed. Any of the brands are satisfactory, some are stickier than others (like Sullivan's in the pink can), June Taylor's is just as good as any. Use sparingly until you learn it's properties. The fumes can be daunting but good ventilation helps a lot, however, do not put a fan on your work. I have a king size bed that I cover with a big flannel sheet and do the layering on that. I have bad knees and do not crawl around on the floor. The flannel sheet holds my work firmly and helps protect the work area. Lay batting down, position backing, peel backing back half way, spray batting, and smooth backing down, peel back other half and repeat. Flip over, position top, and repeat process. Anyone need a big box of pins?

I lay my backing on a flat surface, floor or table, than use masking tape in the 4 corners & also the sides to keep it secure, than batting on top, than your quilt top, use safety pins to hold everything tog. pick up & quilt. I have good luck doing it this way

Did you machine or hand quilt? I always heard that you shouldn't thread baste to machine quilt.

I machine quilted, she suggests you remove the threads in the area where you'll be quilting so you don't sew over the basting threads. The width of the herringbone stitch really does a nice job of pulling the layers together and comes out easy a section at a time. You get the horizontal and diagonal basting stitches at the same time. It's also faster than conventional basting. I plan on trying it again with a bigger project. The only issue I had was I skimped some on the backing and by the time I was at the top I was really close on it. The first thing she says is NOT to do that.

I love basting spray. It seems to hold the quilt together better for me.