Wow! Beautiful quilt and I'm impressed that you are doing it all by hand! I love hand quilting, but mostly use a machine for piecing. Here is a great tutoral for layering and basting your quilt for hand quilting or machine quilting. If I were using this method for hand quilting, I don't think I would starch the back as she suggests, since it may make it a little harder to quilt. I like to use an 18" quilting hoop to so the hand quilting. (It's like a giant embroidery hoop, but much sturdier.) Make sure the quilt it taut in the hoop, but not stretched too tight. If you have more questions for an experienced hand quilter, I would love to help. You may private message me.
Here is the link to the tutoral: This is the first of several.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhwNylePFAA Hope it helps you.