Basting.

Yesterday was my Grandma's birthday - we all went out for lunch. It was really nice! :)

I took my quilting stuff down with me so my Aunt could help me with it. I'm very thankful that she knows what she's doing. Ha. We had an amusing time putting it all together - and with hindsight being what it is, I wish I would have had my camera. She and I were both on our hand and knees with our butts up in the air putting safety pins all over the quilt to keep the layers together. (I'm feeling it today.) At the time it was just ridiculous - Mom and Taylor were making fun of us -oh, we were making fun of ourselves.

After the fun safety pin part we flipped the whole thing over to make sure it was all even and flat. Thank goodness that it was - it took forever to get those safety pins in!

Then we started to baste the quilt. If you don't know what that is - it's when you take a noticeable colored thread and just stitch the layers together to keep it all together when you're quilting it. These threads will come out when I'm done - but I'm starting to like the bright orange on top of all the green fabric! My Aunt and I started the basting. Apparently my sister had started making a quilt a long time ago and there is a funny basting story to go along with it!

Aunt Becky eventually had to go home and left me to finish the basting. Somehow, and I honestly don't know how this happened, but I actually got my sister to help me do some of the basting! Having heard her basting story, I figured it was against my better judgment to have her help me - but she did a really good job. Except for overthreading her needle!

So we got the basting done. I rolled it up and brought it home and now I just need to get together with my Aunt again so she can show me how to hand-quilt. I know what I need to do, and what it's supposed to look like in the end, but it's hard to really learn from websites and videos. Having her show me one-on-one will be much better. Then...it's quilting, quilting, and quilting. It's going to take me awhile - it'll make a good winter project.

If you're interesting in knowing exactly what basting is and how to do it click here.