pin basting the quilt

I am finally getting back to working on my Labyrinth Walk quilt. I showed a photo of the finished top about three weeks ago.

 Besides Christmas preparations, there has been something else holding up the process.
I couldn't decide on batting.

I had ordered a wool batting, but I was sort of disappointed in it. It's very thin, as you can see below. You can see my fingers through it.

The other choice was a cotton batting. Much thicker and heavier.

I kept wondering which would be the warmest...thin wool or heavy cotton. I even tried to test them by laying down and covering up with each.  

I didn't think the Sasquatch would like the wool - he likes heavy covers! But it needs to be a nice warm quilt,too.

Finally I decided to be brave and layer  both battings in the quilt.

It was a bit tricky getting all the layers smoothed out and pinned together.  First I pinned the two battings and the backing together from the back, then flipped it and pinned on the pieced top, from the front.

There was a lot of smoothing out and moving pins before I was satisfied with the quilt sandwich.

funny - I noticed I am dressed to match the fireplace - camouflaged!

Then I added more and more safety pins, rolling up as I went, and removing the back pins.

I used my cutting mat underneath to keep from scratching the floor with the pins.

I ran out of safety pins and had to buy more to finish up with the next evening.

I put the thin wool batting underneath to trap and hold body warmth, and the cotton one on top of that.

Now I am ready to start the quilting. Hope I can squeeze it under the sewing machine!