My First Quilt Basting Experience

As soon as I got home from work today I cut the backing and batting for one of the baby quilts. I hurriedly swept any dust and berries from the deck and spread everything out there. I wanted to take advantage of our lingering nice weather and daylight to use the spray baste (basically a spray glue) outside instead of in the house.

I followed the instructions Pat and Jo had outlined for me and it went swimmingly. I think. I mean, all seems smooth and squared and stuck together so I think it must be how it's supposed to be. And then, to be sure, I spread it out on the dining room table and added quite a few basting pins as well. Now it's ready for my first hand stitching. This weekend.

You can see how uneven some of my sewing is when it's stretched out like this. I'm counting on the whole thing scrunching up a bit after it's quilted and bound so that any wonkiness won't be quite so noticeable. I think it's going to be a cuddly quilt even if it is a little off kilter in places.

I hadn't given much thought about how I'll quilt this. I have the green, coral, and cream perle cotton thread but what quilting design should I use? Should I just stitch around the rectangles next to the seams? Should I do an allover swirly pattern or circles or flowers or ... whatever ... and ignore the seams? If I do that, how should I draw on the pattern? One of those wash away marking pens? Do some work better than others?

I think I'm going to try quilting it on my lap, not in a frame. I have a small standing frame made out of pvc pipes but Mom has it right now and I'm not keen on using a wooden hoop, which I don't have anyway. I have a friend who quilts with her quilt concoction just loose on her lap so I intend to follow her example. I've only ever hand quilted on one of those big, wooden frames ... the traditional way ... so we'll see how this goes.

If anyone has a brilliant idea to share, I'd be glad to hear it.