WIP Wednesday: Quilt backing & basting!

I've been on a piecing run lately exploring log cabin blocks and piecing quilt tops.  The to be quilted pile has gotten a bit big, so I thought I'd better crack on and get a quilt top basted.  My donation quilt has been sitting there for a few weeks looking at me and I have backing on hand for it so it's top of the pile!  This is one of my Library projects (actually make something from the books and magazines we buy!) that I first wrote about here.

Of course first it meant making the backing.  As the quilt top is over 60" square, I needed to cut and piece this sleepy owl design.  It has a repeating pattern which needed a bit of alignment first.  To match up the pieces, I ironed a seam along the length and used this edge to match up right sides together.  I had to move the pieces along until I found the correct repeat and lost about 6" in length not overlapping at both ends.

Pinning along the whole length of the seam, I sewed along the ironed line.  This worked pretty well for me most the of the way along the backing fabric.

Following advice from Crazy Mom Quilts I snipped away all loose threads so the dark colours wouldn't show up through the white (this happened to me on my Halloween quilt - black threads showing through the cream sashing!).

Then it was kick the dogs out, move the sofa, hoover (that's vacuuming on our side of the pond!), wash the floor, hoover again and then layout to make sure its wide enough!

While Charly was doing her hop from one side of the patio window to the other, for some reason  looking at the kitchen door, (Hello Charly, right here in front of you!) I taped the backing to the floor and laid out the wadding (this is Warm & Natural from Hobbs).

I trimmed it all around and laid down the quilt top.  Then I turned on the TV to watch Thor as pinning safety pins through all the layers takes a bit of time!  I'm hoping to try table basting and need to buy clamps to secure to the table, plus I'd like to try the board method where you wrap the quilt over some wooden boards too.  Have any of you guys tried these methods?  Getting down on the floor doesn't bother me, though I do feel it in the glutes afterwards!  Trying to baste anything bigger than this would be a problem as I don't have the floor space for it.

I hour and 23 minutes later...  I might have been a bit distracted watching the movie!

I love using curved safety pins and pin about a hands width across the quilt.  I probably pin more than I have to but after the last quilt puckering on me, I wasn't taking any chances.  So much so, I ran out of curved pins and had to rummage the first aid kit for some straight ones!  There is something very satisfying about finishing up basting!

While Charly was doing her door dance,  I thought Wilbur was chewing on a rawhide bone.  I forgot that Wilbur likes to dig in the garden and bury the odd rawhide bone or two.  It's very comical watching him sussing out a spot and making sure no-one is watching him.  Of course, this time no-one was watching him and instead of burying his bone, he must have decided it wasn't safe where he first put it.  While I was basting away, he was busy buring his bone in my Stash box of backing fabric!

This isn't Wilbur but it's what I imagine he looked like when he was nose deep in Ikea Britten nummer!  Mucky pup!

Image from Facebook Doggie of the Day!

So backing fabric is getting a wash, Wilbur is getting a walk and Charly and I are getting ready to quilt!  To check out what everyone else is up to I'm linking up to: