sewingsuz

maryb119, you are lucky!

Borntohandquilt

I only do thread basting, never done anything else. My basting stitches are around 1 inch long and it works fine.

Butterflyblue

Thank you everyone for the answers. I took out the safety pins once I had the thread basting done, and got the quilt into the hoop. I do think the quilting thread would have caught on the safety pins and been a big pain. Today I plan to start the actual quilting.

I will have to check out the Sharon Schambers video if I ever do another hand quilting project. I've watched her binding tutorials and she has some good techniques.