"4500 pins in a quilt, 4500 pins..." c'mon, sing along "take one down, pass it around...4499 pins in a quilt!"

Okay, so I counted them (kinda). I knew I had about 2000 quilt pins before I started pinning this quilt and I went and bought 1000 more, thinking, "surely, that's enough." Right? Wrong? Ended up back at Joann Fabrics again on Sunday morning last for another 1000 and then Sunday afternoon for 500 more. But it is pinned now and how! So many pins and such a big quilt (120 x 100 inches) that I decided to baste it before quilting it.

I have basted one other quilt in my life, an antique Grandmother's Flower Garden top which I found at the thrift store. I batted it with a cotton batting and used a plain muslin backing, then basted it for handquilting. This was while I was the Director at the Compass Inn Museum in Laughlintown, PA and we used the quilt for demonstrations during living history weekends. I truly intend to quilt it myself someday but some quilters (mainly my friend Marian Chambers) started the quilting. When you think about it, it seems a little insane to hand baste a quilt and then machine quilt it but I know from past experience that I will scratch myself up with 4500 pins, not to mention bleeding on the quilt and breaking machine needles. It took me 9 hours to baste the first third of it so only 18 hours to go!