I know you all are probably sick of this quilt by now, but I wanted to share a couple more tricks I use to prepare a project for quilting. First I press everything with the steam iron on the highest setting, to get the top and backing as flat as I can before I sandwich it with the batting:
When I put the backing fabric down, either on my sewing room table (up to lap-size) or the tile floor (bigger than lap-size) I tape the corners and sides of the fabric to keep it from shifting while I'm pinning the layers together:
I start in the center of the quilt when I pin everything, and I use safety pins now because they don't stab me while I'm hand quilting. Every quilter has their own method of pinning or basting; I like to pin every six inches to prevent shifting and bunching.
Comments
Have you tried the pin covers? They're so much easier on my hands though your guy would probably have to put them on the pins to start, but their made for people with arthritic hands, long nails or people who's fingers just get tired when working with a lot of safety pins.