So I learned a lesson this week while playing about with some quilt as you go (QAYG).  When I’ve seen it described in tutes, it seems like a piece of fabric is plopped onto your batting and quilted in place, then another piece added and so on.  At no point have I ever seen them mention basting, but do you know what happens with larger pieces if you don’t baste?  You get galloping fabric creep *sigh*  If you look at the photo below, you can see the bit ringed at the top where I didn’t baste:

You’ll note that the batting doesn’t run in a nice straight line, in fact it’s warped all out of shape, and bursting out at one point on the right!  What might be less obvious is that the fabric, which started off with its edges parallel to the batting, is now definitely not, and in the lower ringed bit, that straight line down the middle isn’t straight, or even parallel to the edges either.

I might have screamed a little before I regrouped, and spray basted a teeny bit as I added each piece of fabric after that.  And see that edge at the bottom?  It’s actually straight, and not warped or anything – yay!  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish doing battle with this, catch you laters!