When whatever I am making is a bit on the larger side, I call ahead and go to one of my LQS's and they let me use their tables, as many as it takes. Since I go to them often, they are more than happy to help.

I use an old drop leaf table that I've elevated with plastic bins. I use office clips (big quilts) or painters tape to hold the backing down and add the batting and then the top. Then I can pin. Cindy Needham taught me this method. It's much easier than the floor.

This is the way I prefer.

I use 505 spray and I love it! If it's a throw or smaller quilt, I do it on my cutting table. If it's a larger quilt, I do it on my living room floor (vacuuming first though). Pinning was too difficult for me as I found too many puckers and was sticking my self with the pins as I quilted. After the 20th prick, I switched to the 505 spray and I've never looked back. 😍

I use to go to my LQS and borrow their classroom when it was available. You probably need to just slightly tighten your backing but you will know instantly when you have the backing too tight because when you release your quilt from the clips, the top will be slightly puffy since the backing has gone back to it's original shape. I use to run my hand lightly on the backing to make sure there is no shifting before I laid the batting down.

I also use the "skurrs" method....stumbled upon the you tube; chuckled all the way through listening to her sons narratives and then tried it out on my big quilt......loved it......and think fondly of my skurrs often!!!

That's it, I'm calling them "skurrs" from now on!!

My sister and I go to our church. They have at least 6 of those long white plastic tables, and then I tape the back to the tables, and then smooth the batting and top and pin.

If it's small, I tape it to the kitchen counter & thread baste it (in that half zig zag pattern). If it's larger (crib size & up), I tape it to a smooth floor. Before I had a smooth floor (just a tiny galley kitchen & tinier bath, with carpeting everywhere else), I bought a piece of particle board with a laminate finish on it & would lay it on the carpeting when needed & tape to that.

I always tape down my backing. I get wrinkles otherwise. You just want to smooth it flat & then tape -- don't pull or you'll get dog ears for your quilt corners & anywhere else you tape. Masking tape works best; painter's tape is usually okay, too, but I had trouble with it a couple of times so I don't use the blue painter's tape anymore. Lay the batting, then the quilt top gently on top of the backing & smooth with your hand. Then, you want to draw an imaginary line down the middle vertically & horizontally. Start pinning in the center of your quilt & work your way out to the edge horizontally, then vertically, then fill in the rest of that quadrant working your way out from the center, gently smoothing any wrinkles toward the edge as you go. When you finish the first quadrant, go on to the next & repeat until finished. Those curved safety pins really made a difference for me.

I personally have found that when I pin all the way to the edge, my pins get stuck on my extension table, so I have started thread basting the edges of my quilts, rather than pinning them. I really love the results so much that I tried a small wall hanging with thread basting & think I may just switch over to that entirely. I can use straight pins to hold things in place while thread basting & it works great. So much easier to remove than safety pins.

I've always done mine like this, only I don't use the skurrs. I just kind of eyeball the center. At one point I put masking tape in the center of the table but then decided I'm not that worried about getting it right in the center anyway. I don't use clips anymore though, since I started glue basting. But before I used glue I would clip the backing onto the table, put the batting on, put the top on, reclip, and pin. Then I'd move the whole works over a bit and do that part, etc etc. One time I tried doing it on the floor (with glue) and my legs and knees were so sore by the time I was done I decided the allure of being able to lay it all out flat wasn't worth it.

Now that I glue baste, I put the batting down first and glue the backing to it, turn the whole shebang over, then glue the top to the batting. But I haven't done a quilt that is big enough to hang very much over both ends of my table yet so I'm not sure how hard that will be to glue baste.