How do I baste?

This post is in response to a question on how I baste my quilts for home-machine quilting and how I quilted several hexagon quilts.

Here is a picture of how I baste a quilt.  This is one of my first ones so I was dumb and used red crochet cotton.  I hope it doesn't bleed.  (This quilt has been basted for many years, unfortuneately.)  I always use white or off-white now.  Also, this quilt is basted closer than what I do now; I like to go every 3" or so.

Below is a close-up of how I quilted the blocks.  Because this snowman quilt was my first Hexagon, I did short and long loops in the middle.  I quilt them all now with same length ones (see below).

P.S. The center of the loops should all come to one nice point.  This is a BAD example.  I'm better now.

Below is the way I prefer to quilt the hexagon blocks now.

Now you can see what it looks like on the front of the quilt.  I don't mark it at all.  I just use the seam lines as a guide for start and stop points.  They are not perfect but look ok.

You can quilt an entire block including the inside of the border with continuous quilting/not stopping.

When I use wax paper I scratch through 4 layers.  Scratching only works on darker fabrics, otherwise you'll have to stitch through the paper.  You can do several layers by stitching.

I hope these picts help answer your questions.