Would you spray baste, even if your hand quilting? Seems to me it wouldn't hold well enough for that.

I believe it would work. After I spray basted I let it dry for about an hour and then I started free motion quilting and it held together very well, I had no problem.

Another question on basting.....after you spray & you want to start quilting do you cut off the excess edges? I found that if I leavethe edges on I get some of the sticky spray on my new bernina acrylic arm. What do you do??

I'm reading this thread about a month late so I hope you get my reply! I spray baste but use Sharon Schamber's method of putting a quilt together with 2 planks of wood. One of you guys told us about the method - it's on youtube and I'm very grateful. Where she hand bastes I spray and I'm really pleased with the results. The backing, wadding and top are all smooth - I could never get it like that before despite 'hundreds' of pins! Also, I ran out of basting spray on the last quilt so asked MIL for her hairspray and it worked - I was afraid it would gum up the needle but it was fine. So no more 505 for me.

No I leave the backing about 3 inches bigger and the wadding just a bit less than that. By the way, have you tried using a silicon baking sheet taped to the bed of your machine? You can buy specially made ones but this works. Just slide it under presser foot, position it, put needle through it once, remove and push a fine knitting needle through just to enlarge the hole a little bit, replace and tape down using masking tape. It really makes free maching so much easier - the fabric just glides. Then if it does get a bit sticky it's washable in hot soapy water.

Thanks for the info....good to know. Next time I baste I think I will try hair spray, if it works ok it sure will be a lot cheaper